Ventilation in the kitchen

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The kitchen is the room with the highest amounts of heat and odors. In many houses you can see an aspirator (or less often – an absorber). The difference between the two devices is in the way they work: the aspirator sucks the air from the kitchen and takes it outside, while absorber just recycles – the air passes through a filter (usually charcoal) and returns in the room.

If you look at the catalog of a company dealing with kitchen appliances, you will see a wide variety of aspirator models, but they usually have a capacity of about 300-500 m3/h (rarely more). This flow, however, is too small for a professional kitchen, so it is often necessary to design and build a custom ventilation for the kitchen.
Generally it is needed to install an exhaust + injection ventilation system. It’s rarely possible to avoid installing the injection system – usually only in small rooms and kitchens with seasonal use (summer).

It’s important to properly calculate the exhaust ventilation. For that, it should be well known what devices are installed or scheduled for installation (if the object is in the design phase). Based on installed capacity and the type of equipment the amount of air in circulation is determined. Since the appliances in professional kitchens have greater power and have a longer life, an ordinary kitchen aspirator usually isn’t enough.

In a professional kitchen the exhaust ventilation generally consists of suction kitchen hood, air ducts and a fan. In order to reduce the amount of fat in the air the hoods are equipped with fat-interception filters. It’s important for the fan’s engine to be situated outside of the air flow so that it doesn’t get clogged with fat.
Also, the discharge system must compensate for much of the extracted air, otherwise the exhaust ventilation will work with a reduced flow, you might hear the air hissing through doors and windows, exhaust fans will have difficulties working properly, etc. Of course, the problem can easily be solved by opening a window or a door, but if it’s cold outside that will cause sharp decrease in temperature in the room, which is not advisable for a lot of reasons.

Additionally, if the kitchen consists of several separate rooms, the need for an exhaust ventilation is even greater.

Last but not least, it’s important to periodically clean the filters and perform a routine check on the whole system.

We hope this was helpful!