Humidity matters because evaporating water soaks up energy making a thing cooler, so warm temperatures in 0% humidity for a human being will be actually cooler than the same temperature in 100% humidity since the energy is being used on evaporation but the water can't go anywhere otherwise. With the fan, either it's assisting with evaporation making you much cooler or it's just pushing air cooler than yourself over you. The former is far more effective.
There are house coolers that use this principle called "bog coolers" that spray water on a heat exchanger cooling it.
There are house coolers that use this principle called "bog coolers" that spray water on a heat exchanger cooling it.
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I'd treat it a bit differently than that because rather than affecting the rate of heat transfer, the evaporation actually creates a new area of lower temperature. Matters thermodynamically because rather than just bleeding energy into the atmosphere to reach equalibrium. you are using the phase change to create a lower temperature equalibrium. That's how humans can survive in temperatures greater than 100F.