This time of year, having a good fan or air conditioner is a prerequisite for both a good night’s sleep and a pleasant day at home. If your home gets too hot, you can have a harder time focusing and an even harder time getting comfortable. The heat and humidity levels are also the first things your guests will notice.

Although I’m fortunate enough to have built-in A/C units in my apartment, they’re so loud that my wife leaves them off during the day so they don’t interrupt her work calls. We also leave them off when we’re watching TV, and even when we do run them, we don’t use them for long because they’re so old, inefficient, and power-hungry (which shows up on our electric bill). So I was thrilled to find this small-space-friendly tower fan as an alternative. It works as well — if not better — than our air conditioners, and it takes up no room. I’m glad I got it in time for summer, and if you need help cooling down your space, I definitely recommend it.

This tower fan has a compact profile and rotates in a 90-degree range in order to quickly cool any large area. It has a simple touch interface on the top that lets you adjust settings for various functions, including power, timer, fan speed, and rotation. The included battery-powered remote control lets you operate the fan from the comfort of your sofa, and to make sure you never lose it, the tower has a slot in the back — behind the large digital temperature display screen — where you can securely store the remote.

The fan also has four modes — Normal, Auto, Advanced Sleep, and Turbo — that are suited for different times of the day and cooling needs. Normal mode just turns the fan on at a constant speed. Auto mode adjusts the fan speed to maintain a consistent room temperature. Advanced Sleep mode turns off the temperature display screen and strategically adjusts the fan speed and rotation to keep your bedroom cool while making as little noise as possible. Turbo mode simply cools you down as quickly as possible.

The thing I love most about this tower fan is simply how quickly it cools my apartment. I started using it during the day while working in my living room, which is the largest area in my apartment, and it cooled it down completely in less than five minutes. It’s much quieter than our big A/C and I like how it creates a gentle breeze as it rotates back and forth. It honestly works so well that I have to lower the fan speed after a while to prevent my living room from becoming too cold.

I’m looking forward to exploring more of the features — such as the timer and Advanced Sleep mode — but I’m also completely content just using this fan’s most basic functions. They all work consistently well and are intuitive to figure out (meaning you won’t even have to look at the user manual). If you’re tired of your A/C unit or just want a convenient way to keep your home cool that doesn’t add an eyesore to your window, you’re going to love this tower fan.