Instant-Cooling Fans

Moving air only helps while there is sweat left to evaporate. Past that point a fan is just weather. These models answer that with a semiconductor plate set into the back of the housing: press it against the neck, the inside of a wrist or the temples and it pulls heat out by conduction instead of waiting for evaporation to do the work.

The plate reaches its cold within seconds of being switched on, which matters because the moment you want it is rarely a moment you can plan for. It is not a substitute for the head on the front, and the fan does not pretend it is. The two work on different problems: the blades handle the air around you, the plate handles you.

Practically, this is the line to look at if your heat problem is a crowded train, a hot flush, a kitchen line or anything else where the air itself cannot be improved and the only surface worth cooling is skin.