Beating the Heat

So we're not living in Texas heat anymore, but Daegu's weather is definitely what I would call "muggy." Combine that with mid-90's highs, and it's enough to make me sweat just stepping out the front door. But since we spend most of our time during the day indoors, we needed something to beat the heat in the apartment. We spent a couple of nights with the air conditioner on, which made it nice and chilly in here, but we couldn't help wondering how much our electric bill would go up from that. Solution! Buy a fan. Sounds simple, right? Well, it turns out that buying a fan in Korea may make you sweat even more because, suddenly, you have to worry about Fan Death.

Popular media sources (and even a statement from the government) say that Fan Death is one of the top 5 most common summertime injuries. According to these, when fans operate in a closed room, they can be responsible for suffocation, asphyxiation, and even chopping up the oxygen molecules in the air, making it useless to breathe. Even with adequate ventilation in a room, they can be responsible for hypothermia and hyperthermia if blown directly on the future victim.

So, it is believed to be extremely dangerous to sleep with a fan on in a closed room. This belief has even led to the addition of a "life-saving" device included on most fans sold in Korea: a sleep timer. Just like the clock/radio you have beside your bed, you can program your fan to turn off after up to 2 hours of running. If you feel so inclined, there is a wealth of information about this topic on the net just waiting to be read. Give it a look, and decide for yourself.

As for now, we will continue to live on the edge and sleep with our fan on. Full blast.


Here is one of the many warning messages inside the operator's manual supplied with the fan.



And thank God for this thing. The knob on the left is the life-saving sleep timer. Up to two whole hours of non-threatening breezy bliss.


-Us