I've lived with box fans for years. This is our second summer in the Pacific Northwest, and our current apartment has no air movement. I.e., you can have box fans in the windows all night, and the kitchen is this mass of warm air when you get up. The apartment heats up very quickly and loses heat slowly for some reason. The apartment quickly reaches 78-80 degrees and is really unpleasant. So this summer indicated an AC purchase for the bedroom was a good idea. It's been extremely nice to sleep in a cool & dry room.

I'd be quite happy to have a residence that had decent air movement design, along with ceiling fans, but I don't think I'm giving up the bedroom AC.