Save the cook – turn on the hood!

Environmentally friendly extraction is a concept that includes two important parts – ventilation of the kitchen air and economic operation that does not harm the environment.

Good to eat – bad to breathe?

No matter how tasty the meal is, the air in the kitchen is not at all rugged.

So it’s time to turn on the cooker hood at dinner time: it helps to remove the cocktail of harmful compounds and unpleasant smells from the air.

Save the cook: turn the hood on at the same time as the cooktop, oven, and countertop appliances: steamers, grills, fryers, toasters. Set the speed of the motor – according to the intensity of evaporation.

These include formaldehyde, acrolein, amines, ammonia, benzopyrene, coronene, perylene, chrysene and others. These compounds are produced by heating foods and the various transformations that occur during frying, boiling, and baking.

When using gas burners to this bouquet are added carbon dioxide, sulfur and nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, soot, radon.

Change the air ten times in a full hour!

According to health regulations, the air in the kitchen must be changed at least 10 times per hour! The exhaust hood, which operates in extraction mode, removes a certain amount of air from the kitchen, ensuring an inflow of fresh portions from the vent or adjoining rooms.

The volume removed by the appliance depends on its capacity, which is usually recommended to be calculated based on the size of the kitchen: P = width × length × height × 12, where 12 is the coefficient of the SanPiN, but it is used with a reserve.

Gas stove owners also need to keep air flowing into their kitchens at all times. Here are just a few numbers:

Save the cook: After cooking is complete, leave the hood on minimum speed for another 10 minutes to remove all contaminants.

– Two medium-sized gas burners increase the concentration of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide to 10-12 mg per cubic meter in 1 hour of operation. m, which is 10 times the normal level

– In the process of cooking food for a day 3 times a family of 3 people in the kitchen accumulates about 1 kg of carbon dioxide, for a kitchen of 9 sq. m is about 4 percent of the total air volume in it

– Operating the cooktop all 4 burners increases the concentration of formaldehyde in the kitchen air twofold per hour.

The smell was there but it’s all gone

In addition to the stove, the kitchen has many other sources of contaminants. Furniture, especially new furniture that can release formaldehyde into the air cleaning products and detergents that contain toxic substances. The source of pollution can also be a smoker.

Save the cook: it is advisable to periodically turn on the hood even if nothing is being cooked e.g. once every 1 to 3 hours – for air exchange.

The exhaust hood in extraction mode, pulling out a portion of the air, ensuring that it is constantly replaced, getting rid of any substances that are in it. Odors – pleasant and not-so-pleasant – are no exception.

The filters in recirculation exhaust hoods can absorb harmful compounds, although they do so less efficiently.

Dinner is over – the fog dissipates

Cooking not only adds a lot of steam to the air, but it also increases the humidity. In addition, the temperature in the kitchen increases.

Remember physics: Warm air rises upward, so that the mixture of warm and cool air is not evenly distributed, exposing the body to a “layered” atmosphere.

Save the cook: don’t forget to turn on the hood if you’re cleaning, especially with active cleaning products: grill cleaners, cleaning sprays, ammonia.

Together with high humidity it creates another unpleasant effect: it is hard to stay in the kitchen, it quickly gets tired, and after all many people spend a lot of time in this room.

The exhaust hood in extraction mode, by sucking in air, helps to normalize the microclimate of the kitchen. Constant air exchange evenly distributes the temperature and reduces humidity.

If you use recirculation, part of the moisture will be absorbed by the charcoal filters, the temperature won’t drop, but it will be distributed more evenly around the kitchen volume.

Grease deposits will fly out into the street

Another plus point of a cooker hood is that it helps keep things tidy. Grease and soot deposits often collect on the surfaces of furniture and walls.

Hostesses know from experience how hard it is to remove. The cooker hood gets rid of this nuisance because it does not allow these substances to settle, removing them from the kitchen.

Little cleaning energy

An important factor in the environmental compatibility of a cooker hood is its low energy consumption. An average appliance consumes 200-250 watts. That energy keeps the motor, the electronics and the light bulbs going.

Using the device requires periodic cleaning of the grease filter. This filter is often permanent and does not need to be replaced.

Used charcoal filters are discarded and new ones are installed every 2-4 months.