Kitchen and Range Hood Ventilation

Kitchen range hood ventilation is one of the most important aspects of kitchen design and essential for the safety and comfort in your kitchen. When cooking, most people use oil. When this oil gets hot or burns it release hydrocarbons into the atmosphere in the form of fumes, gases, and microscopic particles of oil. If inhaled these are not very beneficial to health because they can irritate the airways, causing respiratory and upper airways illnesses. As a result it is best that these are removed from the atmosphere. They can also exacerbate pre-existing respiratory conditions such as asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease such as emphysema. Also, whilst cooking a lot of steam can be produced. This settles and condenses on surfaces producing water droplets. These water droplets can cause wood to rot, molds and fungi. Yet another case for good ventilation.

The best place to look for and find good ideas and products to help you ventilate the kitchen is on line. Many manufacturers, suppliers and outlets advertise on line and will often provide very good deals and discounts to their internet customers. It is also a good way at looking at their on line catalog of styles and designs. You will find something to satisfy all kitchen design ideas by comparing the models. Doing a search on line will also bring up many manufacturers and suppliers. I also like to use the details found on line to make a list of all the features I want and then go armed to my local supplier. This way I can be sure of getting exactly what I want without being at the mercy of the store salesperson.

The most common ventilation appliance in the kitchen is the humble and most often overlooked range hood. These sit above the cooking surface and run off electric power. They have fans inside that literally suck the air up above the cooking range. As a result, particulate matter, fumes and gases are taken up through the hood and removed. They also remove water droplets in the form of steam out of the air preventing condensation on the kitchen surfaces like walls and windows which can damage them and cause rot. What happens after that depends on the type of hood.

They come in two types: vented and non-vented or vent-less. With a vented model the air is removed from the kitchen, taken along a venting pipe and then usually out through an external wall and into the open air. This is fine if you already have an external vent and are straightforward to fit. If you do not then you will need to put a hole in the wall which requires more work and often requires the services of a qualified builder. You do not really want to be making any expensive mistakes. If this is not an option then you will want to be looking at a non-vented range hood or vent-less range hood. with a vent-less hood the air is still drawn up in the same way bit is passed through filters leaving clean, fresh air which is re-circulated back into the kitchen. The filters collect the gases, fumes and particulate matter and therefore will need cleaning on a regular basis with safe appropriate detergents. It is important to clean them regularly so that they work both effectively and efficiently and to maintain the lifespan of the unit. Vent-less models are particularly useful for people who live in apartments or flats where there is difficult or no access to an external wall. It is often also more difficult to put a hole in the wall of a shared building as you may face landlord or disapproval from other apartment members.

It is important to get the right size of hood. There needs to be enough overlap of the hood over the cooking range in order to remove the fumes effectively. The hood needs to be of sufficient power for the area over which it is expected to work. Also the size and design will depend on whether it is to be wall mounted or mounted over a kitchen island. Island range hoods will give rise to issues like power supply and venting as it is slightly more difficult to vent them as they are not adjacent to an external wall.

Another way to help clean and especially dry the air in the kitchen is to use an air conditioning unit. They will not remove fumes from directly above the cooking area so will not remove these. They will, however dry the air and reduce the amount of condensation settling on the walls and windows. A dehumidifier can also dry the air in a similar way. These will usually be more effective at removing the moisture but the water collected will need to be emptied on a regular basis. If you live in a warm temperate climate then opening the kitchen window will provide good ventilation and fresh air. However, the gases and fumes will nor be removed and, in fact, may be encouraged to re-circulate around the kitchen.

The last point is cleaning. this is essential for the continued safety of the appliance, to make sure it works properly and to save expensive repairs down the line. It will also help with warranties. Use safe detergents to get rid of all the particulate matter and to remove the droplets of fat which have usually collected into larger globules. All in all this will maintain the life of your range hood and save your lungs.