Kitchen ventilation is the branch of
ventilation specialising in the treatment of air from kitchens.
[http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cais10.pdf ] It addresses the problems of
grease,
smoke
Smoke is a suspension of airborne particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-produc ...
and
odour
An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds that are generally found in low concentrations that humans and animals can perceive via their sens ...
s not found in most other ventilation systems.
Kitchen ventilation equipment includes an
extractor hood
A kitchen hood, exhaust hood, extractor hood, or range hood is a device containing a mechanical fan that hangs above the stove or cooktop in the kitchen. It removes airborne grease, combustion products, fumes, smoke, heat, and steam from the a ...
or canopy, and a
filtering system. The system's fan may be located in the kitchen or in its ducts.
Requirements
An adequate kitchen ventilation system should:
* Remove cooking fumes at the source, i.e. as close as possible to the cooking equipment.
* Remove excess hot air and introduce cool clean air, maintaining a
comfortable environment. Inadequate ventilation can cause
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
, contributing to unsafe working conditions and high staff turnover.
* Ensure that air movement in the kitchen does not cause discomfort.
* Provide sufficient air for complete combustion at fired appliances, and prevent the risk of
carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simpl ...
accumulation.
* Be easy to clean (intermittent e.g., manually, or continuously e.g. using ozone) so that fat residues do not accumulate in the hood and ducts and block air inlets, leading to loss of efficiency and increasing
fire risk.
* Be quiet and
vibration
Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon whereby oscillations occur about an equilibrium point. The word comes from Latin ''vibrationem'' ("shaking, brandishing"). The oscillations may be periodic, such as the motion of a pendulum—or random, su ...
-free.
Kitchen ventilation design
The design of an effective kitchen ventilation system is determined by:
* The kitchen's
workload
* The amount, type and
power
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
of cooking equipment
* The kitchen's layout and shape
* The number of kitchen staff
* The need for easy cleaning and maintenance
*
Energy efficiency
Hot air from cooking is usually vented externally through a chimney system. When this is not possible, ''recirculating'' cooker hoods are used that clean the air and direct it back into the kitchen.
Grease filters
The most common types of grease
filters used in professional kitchens are:
* Water-based
*
Cyclonic
*
Ultraviolet (UV)
*
TurboSwing
Turboswing is a type of grease filter used in kitchen ventilation to remove grease particles from the air. It is typically installed inside the extractor hoods of restaurant kitchens. Its operation is based on a rotating filtering medium.
How it ...
Comfort
A comfortable kitchen is generally considered to have:
* A temperature of 20 °C in winter and 28 °C in summer, with a maximum difference of 6 °C from the outside temperature
* Relative humidity of approximately 70%
* Air velocity less than 0.5 m/s (0.3 m/s in refrigerated areas)
References
{{HVAC
Ventilation
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
Kitchen