Due to the activities that take place in the Kitchen mainly ‘Cooking’, the Kitchen is naturally stuffy; thus, it is hard for people to come to the kitchen and stay comfortably as long as they wish without Choking. Due to this anomaly, How to Ventilate the Kitchen becomes a serious problem that requires solution. Ventilation is a mechanical system used to replace stale or noxious air with fresh air. Kitchen ventilation is the branch of ventilation that is specialized in the treatment of air from kitchens. It addresses the problems of smoke, grease and odors.
Kitchen Ventilation is the most important factor to consider in the design, construction and operation of kitchens. Without adequate ventilation and an ample supply of clean makeup air, no kitchen will operate efficiently. The ventilation of a Kitchen is aimed at introducing sufficient clean and cool air and removes hot air so that the occupants will breathe adequately and comfortably; providing sufficient air for complete combustion and preventing debilitating chronic monoxide poisoning; diluting and removing products of combustion from gas and oil fired appliances; diluting and removing vapors, odors and steam from the cooking process and protecting the occupants of a house against particular hazards to health arising cooking fumes.
The degree of ventilation required in a Kitchen is solely dependent on the type of product(s) being cooked, the structure that houses the cooking area, the type of equipment used and local code regulations. Be that as it may, based on the aforementioned aims of Kitchen Ventilation, it is crystal clear that the ventilation of a kitchen is not just important but necessary. For a healthy home, it is important for your kitchen to be properly ventilated. While cooking, you send grease, smoke and sometimes gas into the air. These emissions will latch onto cabinets and other surfaces thereby causing an odor to form overtime. A diligent cleaning routine combined with these simple hacks will keep fresh air flowing through your kitchen
Open Windows
This is the best and most simple way to ventilate your kitchen. Of course, opening a window or windows as the case may be adds fresh air to the house but how you do it creates more impact. In order to properly ventilate your kitchen, keep interior doors open then open windows and exterior doors to create an outlet for the emissions. This way, fresh air will not just enter your kitchen but move through it to push polluted air out.
Ultimately, fresh or filtered air is the best way to combat polluted airflow in your kitchen. Avoid using ‘air fresheners’ to mask odors; they temporarily mask odors but raise pollutant levels without permanently addressing the underlying cause. Provided there is no window in your kitchen, open a window in a room that is adjacent your kitchen to ensure ventilation kitchen.
Use Fans Effectively
What are fans for if not for ventilation? It may surprise you to know that an ideal kitchen should have a Fan. The presence of a fan in a kitchen is not necessarily a sheer display of affluence but for the purpose of ventilation. Fans are musts for kitchen ventilation if your kitchen lacks a range hood. There are a wide range of fans for your kitchen but a basic box fan is the most ideal for kitchen ventilation. Whatever be the model of the fan, it is important that you position the blades of the fan well so that it will blow fresh air into your kitchen while sucking stagnant and polluted air out. Provided you decide to purchase a fan that is fixed into a window like the one above, ensure that you close the window to sit snugly against the top of and block any additional space with a bundled towel or other stop-gap solution. If you don’t have a kitchen window, open windows in nearby rooms and bring in a fan into the kitchen but position it to move air towards the exit so as to push air out of the kitchen. An oscillating fan with an ionizing feature is the most ideal for your kitchen.
Proper Use Of Range Hood
The range fan comes in very handy to not just ventilate your kitchen but mitigate odors and improve air circulation. In fact, it is the best way to filter out smoke and grease while you cook. This is usually used when there is the absence of a boxed fan. It is normally for commercial kitchens; regardless, it is a very important tool for the ventilation of your kitchen. The range fan should be turned on at the start of cooking, not mid way or after cooking. To ensure optimal ventilation of your kitchen, the rangehood should be properly maintained by cleaning the filter once every month so as to keep the exhaustion fan in good shape. The filter should be changed regularly but it varies on how often and heavily you cook; regardless, it should be at least changed once yearly. Be that as it may, once you notice punctures, corrosion, wrapping or excessive grease build-up on the filter, clean or replace it immediately.
Control Grease With A Splatter Guard
Nothing makes your kitchen stuffy and uncomfortable than grease. Thus, minimizing grease in your kitchen can in no small measure reduce airbone, breathable particles and keep cooking smells at bay; a splatter screen comes in handy to do this. The presence of a carbon lining in the splatter screen makes it possible for it to absorb odors. The splatter screen is very affordable and is available at every cooking supply and kitchen stores everywhere and it won’t take valuable space in smaller kitchens. It is very easy to sanitize and will protect your cabinets and backsplashes.
Invest in An Air Purifier
As much as a range hood is an ideal kitchen ventilator, it isn’t regulated and some of them only filter as little 15 percent of particulates. An Air purifier is the higher version of range hood as it can clean over 99.7 percent of particulates above 0.3 microns in size. The Air Purifier is government-rated and it is highly recommended by hospitals for cardiovascular and asthma patients due to its ability to purify the air regardless of the means of cooking especially gas.
The ventilation of a kitchen is a pertinent issue that should be taken very seriously. A kitchen with no ventilation is a very big risk to the health and well being to you and all the occupants in the house. An unventilated kitchen can lead to fire outbreak, odor, high humidity and long term breathing problem. Take into consideration how much time you spend in your kitchen and the effects of a deteriorated health system. You surely need to ventilate your kitchen; don’t you?
