Summary: Your kitchen has to have proper kitchen exhaust fans. The grease mist and the smoke can coat the exterior of your kitchen. They should be caught by the overhead exhaust fans and expelled safely out. There are built-in lights in some of the exhaust fans.
Question: I need a kitchen exhaust fan to suit my new plans for my kitchen. I was told to go for the kitchen hood exhaust fan. Is there a difference between one type of kitchen fan to another? The down-draft kitchen fans were once in style. Do you mind if I ask you what kitchen fan you have installed? What should I do to make sure that the kitchen exhaust fan that I chose will keep my kitchen fresh and airy? From where will the fresh air come in?
Answer: You have asked all that you should be asking. This is an issue I have seen remodelers and builders fumble. The installer did not think enough about the needed replacement air, the fan simply was too weak for the dimension that the kitchen has or it is not vented well.
If you are boiling foods or cooking foods that are greasy, then a fine kitchen exhaust-fan system is surely needed. Particles that are visible, smoke and aerosol mist from the grease that you cannot see are created when you cook. The kitchen surfaces are then coated if they are not sucked and sent out of your house. Even if you have a good exhaust fan, you can still get land up with a thin layer of grease on the ceilings, walls, cabinets and the fixtures of your lights. This is true from what I have seen and observed.
Instead of the down-draft kitchen exhaust fans, I would rather go in for the overhead ones. That is because the air when hot rises up. So why not make use of this for collecting the rising vapors from the cooking with a hood?
The exhaust fan in my kitchen goes with the dimensions of my kitchen. Three-speed model powers the fan and moreover has a built-in bright halogen bulbs fitted into it. The fan has three grease-collectors that can be taken out. We take them out and clean them in the dishwasher. 1,100 cubic feet of air per minute (CFM) is sucked out from above our over our cooktop by the fan when the fan runs at its top speed.
The metal ductwork connected to the fan runs all the way up to the roof of my house. The ductwork joints are taped carefully by the ventilation contractor with special metal-foil duct tape. No air should seep into the other parts of my house from the duct. It is essential to ensure this. If this is not carried out properly, the unseen spaces in your house will be covered with grease. This may pose the risk of fire.
There is a unique roof cap through which the exhaust exits from my fan. The roof cap is manufactured to handle this volume of air. The rain moreover does not come into the house. The installation of the exhaust fan was also effortless.
It is not difficult to determine the size of the required exhaust fan. The area of the kitchen floor is simply measured. This is then multiplied by two to get the capacity of the fan in cubic-feet-per-minute. A kitchen that is 350 square feet would require a fan with an exhaust capacity of a minimum airflow of 700 CFM. The mid way speed of my fan actually takes in this much. At its top speed, my fan sucks our 1,100 CFM of air.
You have also correctly observed that such big kitchen exhaust fans do suck out large volumes of air. This requires sufficient makeup air inlet. If this is not installed in the modern homes, then there will be severe problem with back drafting. Carbon monoxide could then be drained back through the metal vent pipe or the chimney including the smoke odors and/or smoke that came originally from the fireplaces.
Most modern homes are built to be airtight. When a powerful fan sucks the fire from inside the house, air then enters the house from the outside through places which offers the smallest amount of resistance. This could be any openings such as a chimney, a water-heater or furnace vent to any other vents that opens up to the outside. This difficulty is easily solved with the installation of a make-up air vent. Air will easily enter the house through this vent.
Manufactures should have literature with instructions for installation of a kitchen exhaust fan. It is best that this be obtained. The literature usually provides instruction on how to determine the dimension of the exhaust fan that you need. It will also provide you dos and don’ts to assist you to make sure that the warranty does not become defunct. The literature will help you to determine the correct size of the fan. You will also know what the minimum installation needs are.
Do not reduce the size o the exhaust piping. Sometimes it is tempting to get a smaller ducting. This is not correct. Not only is the exact ducting is necessary but also its length should not be more than the specified length. Trust me, this is important.
Take particular care to look whether the bends of the exhaust pipe is in order. A 90-degre bend is always to be avoided. This will also be mentioned in the instructions provided to you. It will also tell you how many bends the exhausting piping could have. The hard bends are avoided as they offer more resistance to the free flow of the air when it is drawn through the exhaust from your kitchen.
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