The performance of oscillating water column (OWC) systems depends on a number of factors in a complex manner. The objective of this work is to analyse the influence of the wave conditions, the damping caused by the turbine and the tidal level on the efficiency of the conversion from wave to pneumatic energy that occurs in the OWC chamber. To achieve this, a comprehensive experimental campaign is carried out, involving in total 387 tests of a model OWC under varying wave conditions (both with regular and irregular waves), damping coefficients and tidal levels. It is found that the damping exerted by the turbine is the factor that most affects the chamber efficiencyeven more than the wave conditions. It follows that a proper selection of the turbine is crucial not only to the performance of the turbine itself but also to that of the chamber, which reflects the importance of the turbine-chamber coupling in OWC systems. The next factor in order of importance is the wave period. Finally, we find that the influence of the tidal level, which is examined in this work for the first time, is significant under certain conditions. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.