How to calculate the hood power in the kitchen

It is difficult to imagine a modern kitchen without such an attribute as a cooker hood. This simple and unpretentious household appliance allows you to solve many problems: it does not allow odors to spread throughout the apartment, while cooking, traps fat and soot, facilitates the cooking process due to its additional functions. The service life of the interior decoration is increased, the process of its regular cleaning is facilitated. But you need to know how to calculate the power of the hood so that it fulfills its purpose for a long time, and does not become a useless interior item of the kitchen.

What types of cooker hoods are there?

Before proceeding to the calculation of the required hood power, you should decide on its type. There are several varieties of these household appliances. The difference between them is not only in design, but also in principle of operation. This can be both the removal of polluted air from the room, and its recycling after appropriate cleaning.

Dome

Polluted air after getting into the dome of such an exhaust through the piping system is thrown out by the fans.

Features of dome type exhaust hoods:

• The system requires a minimum of maintenance, but during its operation, an influx of fresh air from the outside is necessary.
• If the kitchen has modern double-glazed windows that do not allow air to pass through, it may be necessary to open the window during the operation of the hood.
• The disadvantages of this system can also include quite significant dimensions, complex setting.
• Such hoods are recommended for use in spacious rooms.
• The complex of ducts and corrugated joints should have a minimum of bends that impede the movement of air.

Flat

These hoods are more compact and easy to install. Unlike domed ones, they do not require connection to ventilation ducts, since they work on the principle of air recirculation.

Features of flat hoods:

• Do not take up much space in the kitchen.
• Require regular maintenance: carbon filtersresponsible for the neutralization of odors will have to be changed every 3-6 months, depending on the intensity of cooking.
• Soot and grease are trapped in removable acrylic or fixed metal filters. The former will also have to be changed regularly, and the latter should be washed with detergents.

Recessed

Built-in type models are better to buy at the planning stage of the overall kitchen interior. Under them you will have to select or specially order furniture in which most of the hood will be placed.

Features of built-in hoods:

• In their arrangement, they are very similar to domed ones, but, as a rule, they are distinguished by greater power and lower noise level.
• Most of their design will be hidden inside the furniture, so you don’t have to rack your brains on how to harmoniously fit such an extract into the overall composition of the kitchen.

Note! Even powerful domed and built-in hoods will not be able to provide air exchange more than the throughput of the ventilation duct of the apartment.

In most houses, ventilation ducts can provide unhindered passage of no more than 180 m3 per hour. Therefore, it is preferable to use air recirculation hoods, or devices of a mixed type. Their higher cost is offset by independence from the ventilation bandwidth of the apartment. Also, it will not be necessary to solve the problem of fresh air entering the room.

Calculation of hood power

Before buying, it is important to correctly determine the required hood performance. If the power of the selected appliance is insufficient, this will lead to incomplete air purification in the kitchen. Or the hood will constantly have to be used at maximum power, which will affect the period of its operation.

In various sources, the classical formula is given, according to which you can calculate the power:

P = V * N

(P - device performance, V– room volume, N - number of air exchange cycles per hour)

It turns out that to determine the required power of the device, the volume of the kitchen must be multiplied by the multiplicity of the cycles of air exchange in the room, which in accordance with the standards should be 10-12 per hour.

The formula is correct, but there are many hidden moments that can make their own adjustments to the calculations.

Necessary corrections in the calculation

In most apartments, especially in houses of an old construction, kitchens do not differ in large dimensions. The calculation of the required capacity will produce results in the range from 300 to 450 m3 / h. Why do professionals recommend choosing hoods with a capacity of at least 600 m3 / h?

• When choosing a hood according to the classical formula, the device will be forced to work at maximum speed. This will not only affect the level of noise it produces, but also greatly reduce its life. In addition, if any unforeseen circumstances arise, there will be no more power reserve.
• The value of such a parameter as the rate of air exchange depends on what type of hob is used. When using a gas stove, it increases to 20, because the hood will have to remove not only the smells, grease and soot from the cooked food, but also the products of natural gas combustion. If an electric stove is installed, then this coefficient will be slightly less and amount to 15.
• The volume of the kitchen is easy to calculate. But many people lose sight of the fact that this room is not always separated from other rooms by tightly closing doors. In this case, the volume of adjacent rooms with which it is not difficult to exchange air is added to the volume of the kitchen. And this will require a serious adjustment of the calculation. The required performance of the device can increase significantly!
• According to the formula for a small isolated kitchen, a fairly modest capacity device is enough. In fact, in a tiny room, odors and soot will spread much faster. Therefore, to cook in such a kitchen in comfortable conditions, it is not worth saving on the power of the device.

Table for calculating the minimum performance of the device for the kitchen:

Regardless of the selected hood design, the prerequisite must be met: in terms of area it should at least not concede to the hob, and better - slightly exceed it in sizes.

Additional functions

Modern household appliances are equipped with many auxiliary functions. When choosing a hood, you should pay attention to the convenience of their use.

• Touch control panels increase the cost, but preferably sliders, as they are less prone to contamination and look more aesthetically pleasing.

• All models have a lighting function. It is better if the hood is equipped with halogen lamps. They have a more pleasant light and less color distortion than incandescent or fluorescent lamps.

Having carefully calculated the required power of the kitchen hood, carefully choosing its model, you can guarantee not only comfortable conditions in the cooking area, but also the long service life of the purchased equipment.