Why ventilation is important in your kitchen

If you have an exhaust fan above your stove, you should turn it on when you turn on your burners or oven, whether they are gas or electric. The fans remove heat and odors and help keep moisture and grime from accumulating on surrounding surfaces. Moreover, they’re designed to remove ultra-fine airborne particles created when foods are cooked—a source of indoor air pollution. They also reduce nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and other potentially hazardous byproducts produced by gas burners.

In fact, gas cooking burners can produce pollutants at levels that exceed health-based standards. The biggest concern is for restaurant workers, who may be exposed to cooking and gas fumes for hours, but even home cooks can be at risk if the pollutants are not properly vented.

 

 

A recent study from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, published in Environmental Science & Technology, evaluated seven models, ranging in price from $40 to $600. It rated their performance on several variables including fan efficiency (how well they move air), capture efficiency (how well they remove pollutants) and sound (many people don’t use the fans because they’re noisy). No device fared well on all variables—for example, those that captured more contaminants and were quieter had poorer fan efficiency, while the one that removed the most pollutants was very loud.

 

 

But as the paper summed it up, even a moderately effective range hood can substantially reduce your exposure to pollutants—especially if you use higher fan settings and cook on the back burners. According to Brett Singer, Ph.D., one of the study’s authors, cooking on the back burners with a venting hood can actually double the capture efficiency for standard low-cost hoods.

 

 

For health concern, ventilation of good quality is indispensable in every kitchen. To have your kitchen well ventilated, an exhaust fan with high efficiency motor would work and do the job. Being much safer, quieter, and more energy-efficient than AC motors, Genese’s BLDC motors have a lot to offer as a tiny yet remarkable component in your range hood.  

Go to our related article What Will BLDC Motors Do In Your Range Hood and figure it out for yourself.

 

 

Reference: Do you need to vent your kitchen?

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