The best home office cooling products and solutions to combat the summer heat
Summer is fast approaching and due to the coronavirus outbreak, many of us have made the transition from a typical, corporate office environment to a hasty setup at home to keep us working, albeit remotely.
With warm weather on the horizon, you may find your home office is becoming now a stuffy, intolerable place to work effectively for long periods. Cameras, microphones, and monitors may be key in making sure you can carry on in your job outside of company grounds, but they can do nothing to regulate the temperature — and few of us want to look hot and sweaty on our frequent Zoom and Microsoft Teams company calls.
To help, ZDNet has created a guide listing useful gadgets and accessories to keep you cool during the coming months, as well as products that can help stop your laptop or tower PC from overheating and disrupting your workday.
Ozeri Brezza III desk fan
If you intend to spend a lot of time at your desk at home, working remotely and attending virtual meetings, you may want to consider a desk fan to take the edge of the heat.
The Ozeri Brezza III desk fan will not take up much space — coming in at 14x10x14 inches — and the dual oscillating motors will keep you cool with a minimum of noise. As a bonus, the fan comes with a remote control for users to select the flow and direction of cooling air they prefer, with four different speeds on offer.
Luma Comfort 2-in-1 portable cooler
For something stylish and cooling in the coming months, consider the Luma Comfort 2-in-1 portable cooler.
This space-saving option is versatile as it can be used in or outdoors and features built-in casters, three fan speeds, and a programmable timer. As an evaporative cooler — with a water tank capacity of 1.6L — this device uses less electricity than traditional AC units, making it a cost-effective product. The washable air filter contributes to easy maintenance.
Aicheson laptop cooling pad
Sweaty palms and foreheads are not the only consequences of temperatures rising — our devices can suffer, too.
Overheating PCs can slow down, whirring fans can be an annoyance, and in the worst cases, frozen and crashed systems may need time to cool down before you can resume your tasks.
To prevent the temperature in your home office impacting the performance of your laptop, a cooling pad is a worthy investment. Options include the Aicheson laptop cooling pad, a cooler suitable for laptops up to 17.3-inches, which covers the majority of consumer devices out there.
This model, which comes in two colors, is equipped with a silicone holder and four fans, and the pad’s height can be adjusted for comfort.
Dyson Pure Cool
Home offices do not just need to be cool to be comfortable to work in — those now performing their jobs remotely might need to make sure the room’s air is clean, too.
The Dyson Pure Cool, albeit an investment piece considering the price tag of $549.99, could be invaluable for home office workers that have airborne allergies or chest complaints. Dyson’s fan cools the air in a whole room via oscillation from 45 to 350 degrees. An accompanying app reports on air quality and a carbon and glass HEPA filter captures allergens, which may help allergy sufferers as the temperature climbs.
Mainstays personal space mini air cooler
If you are looking for a small, portable cooler you can bring into your home office and also easily use in other rooms, the Mainstays personal space mini air cooler could be a great fit.
The mini cooler is tiny — coming in at only 8×6.89×7.87 inches — and uses tap water rather than ice or advanced filters to push cold air into a room. Users can pick from two speeds and will be alerted when water levels run low.
Bestand aluminum cooling computer stand
Another laptop-related product designed to keep your machine cool worth considering is on offer from Bestand and is likely to be a hit for home workers who use Apple Mac devices, given its aluminum design.
The stand positions your MacBook — or other 11-16 inch laptops — to maximize airflow and reduce the risk of overheating. The frame is made from aluminum which acts as a heat sink, too, allowing users to work productively without experiencing heat-based lagging or crashes. There is also a cable ring to keep connected wires tidy and out of the way.
Aluminum mouse pad
To match your stand and prevent your hands from becoming too warm while working away in your home office, you might want to consider an aluminum mouse pad.
Available on Amazon in four colors, Vaydeer’s product line layers aluminum together with artificial leather so the mousepad grips a desk’s surface without sliding. Laser, optical, and mechanical mice are all compatible.
Cooluli mini fridge
Staying cool while working from home can be achieved through air conditioning but it is important to stay hydrated, too — and who wants a warm drink on a summer’s day?
You could consider snapping up a mini fridge such as the Cooluli mini fridge, available on Best Buy, to stash a few drinks in and to enjoy during work hours.
The Cooluli Classic, available in a variety of colors and patterns, cools down items by 35 – 40F below ambient temperature and has a 0.14 cu.ft. storage capacity. If you don’t have the means to hook it up to the mains, a USB-based power bank can be used as an alternative.
When the weather changes, the fridge can also be used to warm up food and drinks, too.
NXT Technologies air duster
When we consider heat levels in our home office, we can’t forget tower PCs are also susceptible to overheating.
Inbuilt fans and other cooling systems can be hampered when dust and dirt collect over time in tower shells, and if this debris builds up enough, overheating is almost a certainty, thereby impacting PC performance.
To combat this, you should consider picking up an air duster — such as those offered by NXT Technologies — which are dual-purpose: featuring a straw to gently remove debris from sensitive electronics while compressed air blows away the dust and mess threatening to disrupt your home PC.
Hydro flask
The final offering you should consider to stay cool as you work remotely is a flask to keep your drink to hand and icy cold.
The Hydro flask, available on Amazon, is a flask made from stainless steel and is designed to maintain your drink’s temperature — whether cool or hot. When the lid is screwed on, this can prevent any accidental knocks from destroying your devices, and as it is portable, users can also use the flask on their adventures outdoors.
Buyer’s Guide:
When ZDNet created the list above, we considered a range of cooling systems that could be considered long-term investments — especially considering many of us will be working from home for the foreseeable future — as well as budget-friendly options and products that are portable, multi-purpose, and travel-friendly, should users return to their normal working environments in the coming months.
it is important that we not only make sure that there is a comfortable temperature in the home office, but we maintain and keep our devices as cool as possible, too, to prevent overheating. Beyond stands and the regular removal of dust and debris that can clog up our machines, you should also consider keeping your electronics out of direct sunlight, you should not stack devices on top of each other, and you should position them to allow for as much airflow as possible.
Article source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/best-cooling-products-for-home-offices/#ftag=RSSbaffb68