Hood power for the kitchen: calculation and model selection

When choosing a hood for the kitchen, one should consider not only its compliance with the design of the room and the brand under which it was produced. One of the most important selection parameters is the performance of the kitchen hood - the volume of air that the hood can purify per unit of time.

The more powerful the hood, the cleaner the air

How to determine the required performance, and how to choose the right range hood for your kitchen - we will tell you about all this in this article.

Hoods of different types

Flow hoods

When choosing a hood, you need to familiarize yourself with the entire available assortment - after all, various types of hoods are presented on the modern market. The most common designs include two types of hoods: flow and circulation. Their work to clean the air in the kitchen is based on different principles - and therefore each of the varieties of these devices should be considered separately.

Flow-through hood

Flow-through hoods work according to the following principle:

• Polluted hot air under the influence of the blades of the electric motor rises through the duct and is removed into the ventilation ducts of the building.
• During the removal process, air passes through a special metal filter. Particles of soot, soot and fat droplets suspended in the air settle on this filter.

Note! The grease filter must be periodically cleaned to remove dirt, otherwise it will resist too much air flow. At the same time, even the most powerful kitchen hood will not cope with the removal of dirty air.

• Since the air passing through the air ducts no longer enters the room, additional filters (for example, anti-odor filters) are almost never installed in such hoods.
• The efficiency of this type of hood depends not only on its rated power provided by the operation of the internal engine, but also on the condition of the building's air ducts. In houses with clogged ventilation ducts, a significant part of the exhaust power will be lost.

If the ventilation is in this state, the supply hood will not help

Circulating hoods

Circulating hoods for the kitchen, unlike flow-through ones, they work independently of the ventilation system of the building:

• The air is drawn into the intake by the electric fan.
• Passing through the coarse filter, the air loses soot, soot, drops of fat - all this settles on the grill of the grease filter.
• Then the air under pressure passes through a charcoal filter, the main task of which is to remove unpleasant odors.
• The air purified by double filtration is returned to the room.

Circulating hood

Note! The system of two filters creates a stronger resistance to the passage of air, therefore, more powerful kitchen hoods are used for recirculation and, as a rule, than for air extraction.

The optimal choice of circulating cooker hoods with charcoal filter will be for an old house with a ventilation system that has not been repaired for a long time, as well as for a private house.

The principle of operation of hoods of each of the types described is shown in the video on the Internet, and if you want watch their work "live", you can do this in almost any household store technology.
More information in the article How to choose a hood for the kitchen: the question on which the air purity depends.

Choice of hoods in terms of size and power

Hood dimensions

Optimal ratio of dimensions

An important parameter for choosing a hood that directly affects the efficiency of its work in cleaning kitchen air is the size:

• As a rule, hoods with an area equal to or greater than the area of ​​the hob or gas stove (as shown in the photo) are best suited for their assigned tasks. In this case, sufficiently powerful hoods for the kitchen are able to completely catch the vapors rising above the stove - and either remove them into the air duct or effectively clean them by filtration.
• The standard size of industrial hoods corresponds to the most common dimensions of hobs. Most of the models on the market are 50 or 60 cm wide (brands such as ELICA, FALMEC, SMEG, etc.).

Exhausting directly above the hob is most efficient!

• More powerful, but at the same time - more expensive hoods have a width of 80 cm to 1 m. Their performance is sufficient to completely purify the air above a large hob - therefore such large models are sometimes considered semi-professional.
• As for do-it-yourself hoods, their performance depends both on the installed engine and on the configuration of the dome and air duct of the hood. That is why, when starting the independent manufacture of an exhaust device, it is better to include in the project some margin in size, and hence power!

Exhaust power

However, the key factor on which the hood works is, of course, its capacity. The more powerful the hood, the faster it cleans the air in the kitchen, which means that the more comfortable you will be in this room.

The capacity of the hoods is measured in cubic meters of air per hour.

Minimum capacity calculation table (m3 / h)

The minimum productivity of industrial hoods is about 200-300 cubic meters per hour. Such models are quite inexpensive, but they cope with air purification very poorly. It is for this reason that the installation of such low-power hoods can be recommended only if you cook very rarely - otherwise the unpleasant smell and headache from carbon monoxide will become your constant satellites.

If you cook often, then a standard (about 600 cubic meters per hour) or reinforced hood is suitable for you. Devices of increased power are capable of passing through themselves up to 1000 cubic meters of air per hour, but the price of such devices is quite high.

Exhaust power calculation

If you are in doubt about which hood model to choose, we recommend that you calculate the minimum required power of this device for your kitchen. Power is calculated using the formula:

Q = 12 x S x H, where:

• 12 - the sanitary norm for air exchange within an hour (i.e., for a comfortable stay in the room, the air must be replaced at least 12 times).
• S is the area of ​​your kitchen.
• H is the height of the kitchen.

Power depends on the volume of the room

The resulting value will be the minimum extraction power. If your chosen model has less power, you should not purchase it. And if it is more, then the performance margin of the exhaust device will not damage. True, there is one nuance, which we will discuss in the next section.

Exhaust hood and noise level

Powerful kitchen hoods have one very significant drawback - they make a rather loud noise during operation. It is unlikely that you will be able to assess the noise when demonstrating in a store, so instructions will come to your aid.

It usually indicates the volume at which the fan operates:

• If the volume is 30-45 decibels, then you can install the hood in the kitchen.
• If the sound level exceeds 55 decibels, then such a hood can be installed only in a very spacious room. Otherwise, unpleasant sensations are guaranteed!

We hope that the recommendations in this article, describing how to determine the power of a kitchen hood and what factors to pay attention to, will help you make the right choice. After all, a high-quality hood is one of the prerequisites for your well-being. At least while you are cooking in the kitchen!