Kitchen Exhaust System for an Energy Efficient House?

carova_2008

17 years ago

Hi!

We are in the process of building a energy efficient house at the beach. In the process I am finally installing a commercial gas rangetop in my dream kitchen. The issue is the exhaust system. The system that I need requires 1000 cfm.

As I see it I have a few options:

1) Turn on the fan and remove all of the conditioned air from the whole house in a few minutes (Ughh!)

2) Open a nearby window when I turn on the fan and (possibly?) recirculate the fumes (so so...)

3) Find an exhaust system that has incorporated make-up air intakes into the design (yeah!)

Does anyone know of such a system? I have looked all over the net without finding anything along these lines.

Thanks!

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Comments (8)

kailleanm
17 years ago
How does a commercial gas range, 1000cfm exhaust system and air conditioning add up to an energy efficient house? Just curious. ;-)
weissman
17 years ago
Are you getting a real commercial rangetop or a pro-style rangetop and are you sure you NEED 1000 CFM? If you don't have a grill and don't plan to use all your burners at once, there's a good chance that you can make do with 600 CFM and not need makeup air.
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heimert
17 years ago
Physically the only way to conserve the cool air in the home is to rig up some sort of heat exchanger between the exhaust air and a make-up air vent. whatever hot/greasy air you expell from the house will need to be made up--it will come in through cracks, windows, whatever (incl. a makeup air duct), regardless of CFM. That air will be the temperature of the outside world. That just can't be avoided.

The problem is that the air you exhaust will be hot and greasy--not as hot as if you had no AC on, so it's going to be difficult to exchange it with incoming air. I'm sure some engineer could design such a system, but I suspect it's not worth the expense or trouble.
fahrenheit_451
17 years ago
Carova_2008,

Ask your question on this forum: HVAC-Talk. They will help you; I believe one of the moderators is actually a member here at GardenWeb too.
cj47
17 years ago
When I was just beginning to plan my remodel and consulting with a designer to get a ballpark estimate of what we would need to do the work, I said that I wanted a big 36" gas rangetop. She immediately said, "Well, then you'll need a proper exhaust system for it, and those require that you bring in air to compensate for what's being sucked out." This was news to me! The point being, I would certainly think that if such a system is necessary for your setup, then your designers should know and can make suggestions for you to consider. Have you asked them?

I hope that's not too obvious--but hey, it's where I would start if I were you. And if the answers didn't make sense to me, then I'd keep asking, if you get my drift.

Cj
carova_2008
Original Author
17 years ago
kailleanm,

We are all a mass of contradictions! ;)
kailleanm
17 years ago
You're right, carova. And on second read my post sounds really snarky, and for that I apologize.

:-)
carova_2008
Original Author
17 years ago
kailleanm,

No offense taken, but "Thanks!"