Lastly, a panel of testers sit in a room kept at 30 degrees with each fan for half an hour and assess how comfortable it makes them (yes, really). Every model is then scored according to its performance, ease of use, design and product information. Keep this in mind if you’re after a fan you can easily move around the house. If it’s going to stay in one place, a heavier one should be fine, but opt for a lightweight model if you’ll be carrying it between rooms every day. Smart capabilities

The other benefit of tower fans is that they don’t have any moving parts on display. Here, both hot and cold air (depending on the mode you set) comes out of the narrow slit in the main column. In fact, that is probably the ideal use, because it’s heavy enough to pose a problem getting up and down stairs if used at home, as well as taking up a lot of space and making a fairly industrial noise. You wouldn’t choose it for cooling your bedroom at night, but it’s the only one we reviewed that can stand a chance of cooling a 40 square-metre space. Our runner-up fan is a strong all-rounder. With 12 air speeds, it can provide everything from a gentle breeze to a strong flow. It has a broad range of movement too, oscillating at up to 130 degrees to cover multiple people at once, or adjustable downwards if it’s only catering to you. As a result, our testers found it successfully increased their comfort levels.That’s why we put the best tower fans to the test at the Good Housekeeping Institute. Keep scrolling to find our favourite buys to keep you comfortable all summer long.

Many fans offer different breeze styles, allowing you to adjust the feel of the air. For example, the SmartAir Cool+ Purify Bladeless Tower Fan has four different modes on top of its air settings, including a day mode and a night mode. The latter is a key one to look out for as it sets the fan to operate at a quieter volume, and sometimes dims the display, limiting any disruption to your sleep. Oscillation Even the least energy-efficient – the Princess Smart Air Cooler – wasn't much more expensive, averaging about 2p an hour. The Chillmax is one of the most searched-for air coolers, but that may have more to do with JML’s hard-sell TV advertising than its cooling ability – which, to be honest, is fairly minimal. At a mere 7.5 Watts, it’s less than one twentieth as powerful as the Symphony air cooler above and could more accurately be described as a vaporiser, projecting a cloud of somewhat cool mist for about a metre. You can control this fan via its accompanying app, voice command or a traditional remote. Its instructions are clear, as is the app, which can change settings even if you're in a different room. We found the voice activation effective too.In this test, I haven’t given any 10 out of 10 scores because I don’t want to give the impression that air coolers are perfect. In a heatwave, an air cooler will be just enough to make the difference between sleeping and not. Note that fans don’t generate cool air (apart from this Princess model, which houses a water tank), so limit their usage to when you’re in the room and can feel the benefits. To get the most comfort from your fan, these GHI-approved tips will help boost its ability to circulate cooler air. How we test fans Heat mode This fan has a thermostat, so it will turn off automatically when the right temperature has been reached.

All the fans on our list rotate to some extent, but the models with greater ranges of motion can help improve the comfort of several people at once. For a living room, try the Dyson Purifier Cool Auto React, which rotates just shy of 360 degrees. Weight I measured power consumption at a maximum of 1983kW on Heat mode (in fan-only mode, power consumption topped out at just 28.8W). Given the average cost of electricity in the UK (18.9p per kWh), this means that the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower will cost a maximum of 37.48p per hour to run. Note that next to central heating, all electric heaters are comparatively expensive to run. Still, in Alexa, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower appears as a proper device, so you can use it in routines. PerformanceThe associated HomeWizard app (for iOS or Android) allows you to give it voice commands using Siri or Google Assistant. I will never use those. Some will, but I can’t help feeling it would be cheaper without them. If you want to turn your home into a wind tunnel, this is the fan for you. This tower fan had the highest air speed of all the models we tested, blasting out air at a rate of over 800 feet per minute. Unsurprisingly at that level, things got noisy, but fear not, its lowest setting would be quiet enough for bed-time. Additionally, it should be easy to use and maintain, with features like air cleaning filters, automatic shutoff and timers. You’ll also want to make sure it’s energy-efficient. The more powerful units use more energy, although all air coolers are much cheaper to run than air conditioners.” The Symphony has the largest water tank we tested, which doesn’t translate into more power – it just means it lasts longer (two days and nights, in this case). But as it happens, the Symphony is powerful, too, with an airflow of 840 cubic metres per hour that allows it to cool rooms up to 12m 2. That’s a bigger space than many air coolers – although still not huge. No air cooler can chill a big living room. For that you will need a proper air conditioner. The more settings, the greater control you’ll have over the fan’s air flow. Look for a minimum of three – any more and our tester found the differences between them negligible. Modes

Dyson’s latest fan has claimed our top spot thanks to its outstanding range of air speeds, which helped our testers feel comfortable in hot conditions. They found it easy to use, and praised the versatile design that also acts as an air purifier and humidifier – an effective feature on test, which will come in handy if you find fans quite drying. Surprisingly, its lowest setting wasn’t that energy efficient, but its night mode will come in handy if you’re after versatility. Ion technology also sets it apart – by generating ions, it also freshens the air in your room. I put the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower through my standard tests. Starting with the regular fan, I measured air speed at 3.08m/s on maximum setting from 15cm away, falling to 1.31m/s at 1m. That’s not bad, although I have tested more powerful fans. Including many of the more advanced features seen in models from some of the bigger brands, but without the matching price, the Princess Smart Heating and Cooling Tower is a useful product that you can use all year round. These costs will obviously add up if you run your fan for hours on end. But if you’re after one for occasional use, none of the models on our list should add much to your energy bill.To prevent the ceramic heater from overheating, the minimum fan speed has to be high; that’s pretty standard for all fan heaters.