© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The summers are spreading, singeing parts of India, though it is still just the early days of March. But early and longer summers are something we should all prepare for across the world as climate change becomes a scary reality with each passing year. But not all of us can afford air conditioners or practically use them everywhere. And this is why innovations are happening around cooling, innovations like the Orient Electric Cloud 3 fan.
Well, it is a pedestal fan that uses what Orient Electric calls Cloudchill technology to bring down room temperatures when the fan is running. It is, however, a bit like mist fans you might have seen in restaurants and banquet halls or to put it a bit more crudely, an evolved desert cooler.
Though this too takes in water to go about the cooling, it is not the same thing. Orient Electric’s Cloudchill technology converts this water into nanoparticles. In fact, you can see mist rise from the orifices in front of the fan, but you can’t feel the moisture — the particles are that tiny.
And this cooling is not a default option. You can use the fan without the cooling too and it works like any other pedestal fan with three speeds and a swivel function. There is a separate button for cooling and three-speed settings of its own.
Orient Electric claims the fan can cool up to 12 degrees with the 4.5 litres of water it can store inside the pedestal. I tested the fan in March when Delhi was becoming warmer, but still not as hot as it gets in the northern plains in summer.
Sitting in a room with the fan on, you do feel cooler. But the impact will be really felt only when the mercury starts pushing upwards of 40 degrees Celsius. At the moment, I could feel the temperature in the room come down by a couple of notches — I used the HomePod weather and humidity sensor to keep a tab. In fact, since this does not cool like a cooler, the humidity also did not go up much. Also, I did not experiment by adding ice in the cooler — Orient claims this will make it even cooler. It certainly was not the weather in Delhi to get a chilled wind blowing inside the living room.
I would say this comes somewhere between a fan and an AC, and a notch below the desert cooler. But there are many places where the AC and cooler both don’t fit in, quite literally, and that is where the Cloud 3 could come in. Also, the power consumption here is much below both the AC and the cooler. In fact, the fan uses a regular two-pin plug. There is also a Cool Eco mode which consumes even less electricity.
The Orient Electric Cloud 3 fan is a regular pedestal fan at first look. But then you notice that this has a much thicker stem than most fans and this is the water reservoir for the cooling. There is a small tray at the back which you can pull out to fill the water and ice. This is also where you can add some essential oils to use the cloud tech to also spread fragrance in the room. The fan actually comes with a small vial of sandalwood oil.
There is a breeze mode which makes the room feel more natural. The fan is not that noisy at lower speeds, but you do hear the buzz when both the fan and the cooling are at full.
The fan comes with a remote that makes life a lot easier. But I have been noticing that remotes are slowly becoming standard with a lot of high-end fans.
The comes with free installation and it is better to use this service as setting this up alone was not easy at all — I was not aware of the installation service.
After I tweeted a first-look video of the fan, a lot of people messaged me about the pricing and availability of the device. Priced around Rs 15,000, the fan is available via Amazon. However, I won’t recommend this to everyone, especially those who think of this as a replacement for the AC.
Actually, it is better to consider this as an upgrade for the pedestal fan or even a slimmer, smarter room cooler. You might be disappointed if you consider this in place of an AC, especially when it gets really hot and humid a few weeks down the line. But still, for those who can afford it, the Orient Electric Cloud 3 fan is a good addition to your house, shop or office.
