As a result of the widespread use of plastic windows in the kitchens of our homes, the natural ventilation, which was provided by the wooden frames, was disrupted. Meanwhile, effective ventilation in the kitchen is a must.
And it is necessary to organize it competently, so that instead of extracting kitchen air, you do not get an influx of “aromas” from neighboring apartments or from the toilet. You are also worried about this problem, but you do not know where to start? In our material, we will focus on the arrangement of ventilation in the kitchen. We will talk about the types of hoods and the nuances of their installation.
Why ventilate the kitchen?
Most domestic apartments are equipped with stoves, which use natural gas. In the process of its combustion, carbon dioxide is formed, the toxic properties of which are manifested as its concentration in the air increases.
The most reasonable and modern solution to this problem is the installation of hoods and forced ventilation of the room.
A modern range hood is an indispensable attribute of a kitchen if it has a gas stove: it can be used to remove unburned and carbon dioxide from a room
So, ventilation is necessary even if the gas stove works perfectly. The need for it increases with errors in the configuration of the equipment, which can cause the emission of carbon monoxide. It is much more dangerous than carbon dioxide, and its presence may not be noticed: this gas has neither color nor smell.
In addition, gas or natural gas may not completely burn out, accumulating in the air. There are situations when the burner flame goes out. For example, he was flooded with "runaway" milk. If there is no special protection, then the gas entering the room can provoke an explosion that can cause troubles throughout the house.
It turns out that, starting to work with a gas stove, you must immediately turn on the exhaust fan. But the presence in the kitchen of an electric stove does not reduce the importance of ventilation of this room.
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The most powerful and really large, regardless of the real area, air consumer is the kitchen
The kitchen has the maximum amount of equipment that produces heat during operation, including stoves, ovens, hobs
A natural type of ventilation often does not cope with the formation of air exchange even in a small kitchen. And in a room larger than 7 m², it is almost mandatory to use a fan
The most common version of the ventilation device in the kitchen is to install an umbrella with a mechanical exhaust system
In the case of installing a recirculation hood model, there is no communication with the ventilation system of the house. Such a scheme only cleans the air from oily suspension, contaminants and microorganisms
If the exhaust system is connected to the ventilation shaft, in addition to contaminated air mass, it removes excess heat and fumes generated during cooking
An extractor hood with a fan is selected by multiplying the volume of the kitchen room by 10. From the obtained value, it is necessary to subtract the volume occupied by furniture and household appliances
It should be remembered that when using equipment that discharges exhaust air to the ventilation shaft, it is necessary to ensure its inflow. To do this, you need to open the vents more often, it is advisable to install the supply fans in the window or the supply valves in the wall
The largest air consumer
Concentration of heat sources
Use of mechanical ventilation
Umbrella with exhaust fan
Recirculation hood type
Ventilation related umbrella
Selection of kitchen hoods for power
Air Supply
The burning of food, which often happens among lovers of fried potatoes and fish, is accompanied by the release of harmful compounds that are formed as a result of the pyrolysis of organic compounds. Those who prefer steamed products know that evaporation leads to increased humidity in the room. And its level also needs to be lowered.
And even supporters of the smell of fresh pastries understand that it is impossible to saturate the whole apartment with this wonderful aroma. A mixture of initially attractive odors eventually turns into a mishmash of partially decomposed volatile organic matter, the presence of which in the air is unlikely to please anyone.
Even if your kitchen is equipped with an electric hob, an extractor hood will come in handy to lower the humidity in the room and eliminate cooking odors from it.
Conclusion: the hood in a modern kitchen is not a fad, but a vital necessity.
Varieties of cooker hoods
Different user needs force manufacturers to develop proposals that are optimally suited to the needs of a particular buyer. Therefore, the range of exhaust devices for the kitchen, which offers us the modern market of household appliances, is quite wide. We will try to understand their diversity.
According to the method of cleaning air masses
There are many ways to clean the air in the kitchen.
Depending on which one is used in a particular model, hoods are divided into:
- Evacuators. These models take air out of the kitchen to the outside through ducts made in the form of a metal duct or corrugated pipe. For such a device to work, you must have a ventilation duct or a simple hole. Typically, a duct is provided with a valve to prevent back draft.
- Circulating. This model has a carbon filter similar to a gas filter. In fact, this is not a hood, but a filter unit that cleans the air of the main "aromas": there is no air exchange with the external environment. Such a device attracts by its simple installation, but it is not able to protect, for example, from gas leakage.
Circulation hoods can be adjacent to the regular ventilation of the kitchen. Their disadvantages usually include high cost and expensive maintenance: carbon filters require periodic replacement.
The circulation model of the cooker hood will not help you if carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide has accumulated in the room, and the evacuator can easily cope with this problem.
A feature of the evacuation hood is that it also removes excess heat, which is always generated during cooking. The circulation model does not have such a function.
Structural division
In addition to the main function, buyers pay attention to other distinctive characteristics of various models. The exhaust device should fit well into the general interior of the room, be convenient to use and also: well, if it were possible to save money and install it yourself.
Therefore, modern hoods differ not only in the power of air purification, but also in the installation method, design, material of manufacture and the presence of additional options.
A fireplace or dome hood is often found in our homes: it is important that the area of the lower part of its dome corresponds to the area of the stove installed in the room
According to the type of design, the exhaust devices are divided into:
- Dome. This model got its name due to the shape of the air intake. It looks like a truncated pyramid, whose dome is located directly above the stove. An air duct departs from the hole in the upper part of the dome, transporting air outside the kitchen through the hole in the wall or through the ventilation duct.
- Recessed. This hood is located inside the furniture in the kitchen. Quite often, the built-in hood is equipped with a pull-out panel, which allows you to economically use the space of the room and, at the same time, provide comfortable control of the equipment.
Before ordering furniture and buying a range hood, you should plan your kitchen so that items of furniture and household appliances do not interfere with each other, look aesthetically pleasing, and use them would be convenient.
Spatial planning is very important when installing a built-in hood. As a rule, if the hood is not included in the kit initially, furniture for it is made to order. At the same time, all the nuances must be provided, allowing you to nicely and accurately arrange all the elements of the built-in equipment.
Location classification
Exhaust equipment is installed in the kitchen, taking into account various factors: the size of the room, the location of the stove, and so on.
It’s good if there are high ceilings in the room of your kitchen, then a modest wall-mounted hood will look very impressive
At the installation site, the hoods are divided into:
- Wall mounted. In this case, one side of the hood dome is adjacent directly to the wall, and the second is above the stove.
- Corner Placing the stove in the corner not only saves the kitchen area, but also makes the hob more accessible. The design of the corner hood dome itself has a shape in which its two sides fit into the corner of the room, fitting tightly against the walls.
- Island. The lucky ones who have a large kitchen room can afford the installation of an island structure. It is placed above the stove located in the center of the room.
The range of manufactured models has a variety of shape options for hoods. For example, flat models are mounted under furniture so as to hang over the stove.
What can we say about the kitchens, the area of which allows you to place the stove and work table right in the middle of the room, and the hood is above the island stove
Before installing the hood in the kitchen yourself, you must carefully study the instructions. Each model has its own nuances of installation, but some general rules apply to all hoods.
This is the height at which they should be located relative to the surface of the plate. For gas stoves, the distance is from 75 cm, and for electric stoves - not less than 65 cm.
The rules for installing the hood are not so many, but they must be strictly followed, because they are dictated by the safety of home owners
So, the lower installation level is defined, the upper one is selected independently. And it depends on the growth of the apartment owners: using a stove and hood should be convenient. More details about the nuances of installing the hood can be found in this material.
Most often, modern customers prefer built-in models. They are cheaper, and it is quite simple to mount them with your own hands.
Schematic diagram of a kitchen hood
The composition of any hood includes the following elements:
- Fan with electric motor. A multi-speed asynchronous motor rotates the exhaust fan, thanks to which air flows through filters that trap grease.
- Filters All hoods are equipped with reusable or disposable grease filters. Carbon filters are present only in circulation models and act similarly to activated carbon. Their replacement is performed every 3-4 months of operation.
- Lighting lamps. Lighting on the hob is carried out using incandescent lamps, LED or halogen lighting devices.
- Speed shift scheme. In different models, speed switching is carried out in various ways: using touch devices, using buttons, or using the slide switch.
Take a look at the standard wiring diagram for the hood, in which all the above elements are present.
The standard wiring diagram for the hood for the kitchen includes all the main elements listed by us above, and the procedure for connecting them is presented
Design Safety
A fan is necessarily included in the exhaust equipment kit, which means that the exhaust hood must be connected to a power outlet. If you have just started repairing in a new apartment, be sure to provide a separate outlet for the hood, because this equipment must always be in a connected state.
Employment of the outlet with a single device allows you to hide it behind the elements of the furniture set. But do not forget to provide easy access to it. There is another important rule: the outlet should be located no closer than 60 cm from the sink and from the stove.
Remember that this range hood is an electric appliance that can shock you, so you need to be serious about electrical safety.
A kitchen, like a bathroom, is a room in which it can be both hot and humid at the same time. Excess moisture and fat from cooking settles on the exhaust grill. This creates favorable conditions for electrical breakdown on the metal casing from the fan motor. For this reason, the device should be connected to the mains using three wires.
The connection diagram of the fan, which is included in the complete set of the kitchen hood, clearly demonstrates that three wires are needed: phase, zero and ground
The wiring must include zero, phase, and ground. The ground wire is easily distinguished by yellow insulation and a longitudinal green stripe. Modern houses are equipped in advance with Euro outlets and an earth loop. In this case, it is sufficient to connect the ground wire to the corresponding plug terminal. It is easy to distinguish it from others by the icon in the form of three different-sized parallel lines.
Older buildings may not have ground loops. In this case, you need to take care of the protection yourself. In the event of a breakdown on the chassis, grounding will allow the circuit breaker to trip. In addition, it is necessary for equalizing potentials.
As an additional protection, it is recommended that the wiring for the hood outlet be made as a separate cable with protection for the RCD and the circuit breaker.
How to make protective grounding yourself?
To build a protective ground in the old house, it is absolutely not necessary to dig a trench and drive metal pins into the ground. The exhaust equipment must not be grounded to the water supply system, heating plant and, especially, to the gas pipe. This is dangerous not only for you, but also for neighbors.
For an earthing device in an old building, you need to find a dead neutral and connect to it. To do this, open the introductory shield at your entrance or in the apartment. The wires entering it are enclosed in a pipe, which is walled up in the wall. It should have a threaded pin, possibly with a previously connected ground. This is the desired blank neutral: the pipe is reliably grounded.
You need to take a flexible stranded wire, the cross section of which is at least 2.5 mm2, and conduct it from neutral to the installation location of the outlet. The hood should be connected to the network using a 6.3 amp automatic disconnector.
The socket is hidden behind the elements of the built-in furniture, but access to it is very easy to get: just open the desired door
As already mentioned above, other earthing can be on a dead neutral. They cannot be turned off. Throw your terminal over existing ones and secure it with a nut. With a smooth neutral surface, a clamp can be used to secure the ground. It’s great if an electrician from your Management Company will participate in this work.
Possible ventilation problems
When installing the hood, the regular ventilation system of the apartment may be disrupted.An attempt to solve this problem is punching specifically for drawing an additional hole out or into the ventilation channel. But the desired effect cannot be achieved in this way. The cross-sectional area of the same ventilation duct does not increase when another hole appears in it.
With a successful combination of circumstances, only ¾ children from the kitchen will go to the canal, and ¼ will remain in the apartment. If there is a strong wind outside or there is a craving from the lower floors, then all the burnt will return to the kitchen or go to the neighbors, which may result in a damaged relationship with them.
As for the air outlet through the breakdown in the wall, the bearing structure is affected. Such work must first be agreed upon, and a draft of the changes to be made. In addition, such a solution creates the risk of condensation settling both in the duct and on the fan motor. Then a breakdown to the case is almost inevitable.
The operation principle of a hood with a clapperboard reveals the principle of its functioning: air masses will not flow through the duct back into the kitchen
As a way out of this situation, it is proposed to use an additional section of the air box equipped with a clapper valve. A diagram of this device is shown below.
Under the exhaust duct, you need a square-shaped window, the side of which is ¾ of the diameter of the duct. This allows its cross-sectional area to correspond to a similar duct area. The perimeter will be slightly smaller than the circumference of the duct. Then, with the connection, complexity will not arise.
The damper can be made of aluminum with a thickness of 0.5 mm or of the same thickness of fluoroplastic or fiberglass. An aluminum product is preferable, because not only the stiffness and thickness of the material, but also its lightness is important. The operation of the cracker will be more effective with a lower specific gravity of the material from which it was made.
The damper is equipped with a weak thin spring. Its function is as follows: when the shutter is raised to its upper position and the effect on it ceases, it should smoothly return to its place. If the spring is slightly stretched, but stiff, then for our purpose it will not work.
The wire constituting the spring should have a diameter of 0.2-0.3 mm. With a length of 120-150 mm, the diameter of the spring itself should be 3-5 mm.
Read more about how to properly connect a cooker hood to ventilation, read on.
Use of odor neutralizers
Often, kitchen hoods provide odor neutralizers.
In our stores you can find three types of converters:
- Chemical. These neutralizers need to be changed often, because they are quickly dragged on with a grease film and cease to act, without having fully developed their own resource. In addition, they themselves exude compounds that can be harmful to health.
- Electroionization. If you have an ionizer, then the principle of operation of this device is also familiar to you. But in any room of the house, harmful substances are in a much lower concentration than in the kitchen above the hob. To neutralize them, a strong discharge is required, which can also harm the hostess standing at the stove.
- Ultraviolet. When using neutralizers of this type, it is sometimes necessary to clear bulbs of plaque and change them approximately every two years. But these bulbs are not cheap. But such a neutralizer is safe for human health. Moreover, lamps emit not only ultraviolet, but also light: white or with a slight blue.
Armed with the information received, we will choose the necessary neutralizer not blindly, but competently.
A few words about the ducts
The duct kit is not included in the hood kit. It will have to be bought separately. It is believed that a metal box with a rectangular cross section looks more aesthetic than aluminum corrugation, but it also has its own advantages.
Anyone who believes that the corrugation does not look too attractive may be wrong: under certain conditions, it can even decorate the interior of the room
The corrugation should be chosen with a diameter that corresponds to the inlet at the top of the hood. If the length of this pipe is less than 1.5 meters, then the aerodynamic drag of this material is practically negligible compared to the random losses resulting from turbulence in the ventilation. Corrugation is easy to cut with ordinary scissors.
The corrugation can be squared to connect it with a clapperboard. She completely lacks the resonance properties that sometimes arise in hard boxes. If you still prefer to buy corrugation, then the monotonous hum will never accompany the cooking in your home.
The recommendations of a specialist in this video will help you not to get confused, considering models of exhaust devices that modern supermarkets of electrical household appliances offer you. The choice must be made with knowledge of the matter, so listen to the advice of a professional:
You can build ventilation in the kitchen with your own hands. But before you begin to work, you need to find out what types of exhaust hoods are offered by the modern market, what rules and schemes of the hood hoods for the kitchen exist.
If you had to deal with the arrangement of kitchen ventilation and have something to advise our readers, or there are questions that you would like to receive an answer to, please leave your comments in the block below.