While the Twin Cities finds itself in the midst of a brutal heatwave, MPR’s Cathy Wurzer interviews Michael Tortorello about his support of fans over air-conditinoning.
This 4-day heat wave from July 17-20, 2011 is regarded as having the greatest daily intensity. The exceptionally humid conditions led to heat index values of 110-125 degrees. As for heatwaves, nothing approaches the legendary event that gripped Minnesota from July 5-July 18, 1936. In that year, the Twin Cities the high temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher for 14 straight days, including 8 days with high temperatures at or above 100 degrees.
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CATHY WURZER: We're working our way through Wednesday and it's Morning Edition here on Minnesota Public Radio news. I'm Cathy Wurzer. The heat wave that's been melting the Midwest shows no signs of letting up. Today is supposed to be the hottest day yet, if you believe it, with temperatures approaching 100 degrees, air temperatures, and a heat index that could get as high as 118 degrees. The National Weather Service's excessive heat warning continues through about nine o'clock tonight.
In the struggle to stay cool, it's hard to imagine anyone being opposed to the delights of air conditioning, but one St. Paul resident is arguing against it and in favor of fans. That's right. Good, old-fashioned fans. Michael Tortorello makes his case for this unlikely hero in a recent New York Times article. He joins us this morning on the phone. Good morning, Michael.
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: Good morning, Cathy.
CATHY WURZER: So let me ask you first. I presume you have air conditioning. Is that right?
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: For the first time in about 20 years, I live in an apartment with air conditioning.
CATHY WURZER: And it's on.
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: Oh, it's on.
[LAUGHTER]
CATHY WURZER: OK. But now, in your piece in The times, you are championing the use of fans over air conditioning. So what's the argument there?
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: Well, OK, first of all, I will say that there are some very interesting and little known research that suggests that people can be comfortable at much higher temperatures than they would have thought if they combined their fans with their air conditioner. So right now we've got the air conditioning, I think, set at around 78. By way of experiment for this article I wrote, I actually pushed the temperature up to about 82 or 83. The research says you could go all the way up to 86 if you've got a good breeze blowing on you.
CATHY WURZER: Wow.
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: So I guess-- yeah, I know. Hard to believe, isn't it? And this research was done by putting people in simulated offices, giving them control of a fan and telling them to turn it up until they felt comfortable. And I think the results were pretty surprising. Overall, the data tells us that we can be comfortable about 4 degrees hotter than we think with fans blowing.
CATHY WURZER: Really? But these fans used, they're not the average Target or Walmart brand fans, right? What's different about them?
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: Well, that's exactly one of the big differences. Most of the fans that you get are pretty much the same fans they've been selling since the 1890s. The paddles aren't shaped to move a lot of air. If you're talking about your junky ceiling fan, the one with the gilded edges, looks like it came out of a Western saloon, and maybe the little chain is a pom-pom hanging from the tassel.
CATHY WURZER: Yes.
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: That thing actually heats up at the core, if you see thermal imaging, up to about 108 or 110 degrees, and then the paddles are blowing that hot air down on you. So I ended up with new and redesigned fan that has paddles that are supposed to move, I think, about 100% more air. It draws almost no power and the motor doesn't heat up.
CATHY WURZER: Oh.
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: And you can feel the difference. It really is not your average ceiling fan. Also, in terms of cost, because it costs about $300 more.
CATHY WURZER: OK. All right. Well, that could be the-- kind of a kibosh for some people, I would suppose. What did you learn after doing all this research?
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: When people have air conditioning in their house, they use it and they use it all the time. The number of people who have air conditioning in their houses and don't run it virtually all the time is negligible to almost zero, which is to say, people use air conditioning kind of mindlessly. They just crank it on and they leave it on all the time. And one of the things I discovered from this article that I wrote is that there's a lot more variability in terms of ways to make you and your family comfortable than you might have imagined.
CATHY WURZER: I hope you keep cool.
MICHAEL TORTORELLO: Thanks, Cathy.