ASHRAE Journal

Kitchen Exhaust:
Issues and Solutions
By John A. Clark, P.E. As a reminder, the primary purpose of
Fellow/Life Member ASHRAE the grease filter in the hood is to prevent
flame penetration into the duct. The ther-

A
kitchen exhaust system is more than a hood in the kitchen area mal plume will rise into the canopy and
be contained if there are no disturbing
to capture, contain, and remove vapor, smoke and grease from cross currents of air.
cooking operations. Hood manufacturers have designed cano-
Fans
pies that capture and contain. Filter banks also are part of the package. It Most systems place the exhaust fan
is important to understand how the exhaust fan, stack discharge, and at or near the outlet of the duct system.
Placing the fan at the outlet end keeps
replacement air contribute to a successful kitchen exhaust system. the duct under negative pressure so
leakage tends to be into the duct. If the
Basic System Considerations Temperature rise is measured. duct was pressurized by a fan near the
A hood canopy is used to contain the d. Fan failure test with 50% of mini- hood, grease would tend to leak out. A
rising thermal plume produced by hot mum cfm, 1 pint (473 mL) of grease ig- roof-mounted fan often is used for
cooking processes. The hood includes nited. Temperature rise is measured. ease of service and cleaning. The pur-
a filter bank to remove grease and to e. Fire test with minimum cfm and 3 poses of the fan, other than to move the
prevent flame penetration into the pints (1.4 L) of grease ignited. The hood air, are:
ductwork. Air movement transports the should not be damaged. • Keep the contaminants off the roof
heat and contaminants through the fil- f. Burnout test with minimum cfm. The surfaces,
ters, up the ductwork, and out of the head is coated with 0.3 lbs of grease per • Discharge hot, grease-laden air away
building. A fan provides the air move- square foot (0.01 kg/m2) and 1 pint (473 from air intakes, and
ment. mL) of grease ignited. Temperature rise • In the case of fire, direct the heat or
The design airflow for a UL-listed hood is measured. flames away from the roof or nearby sur-
is based on the minimum amount of air The measured temperature rise is com- faces.
required to capture and contain the ther- pared to an acceptable tabular value. The up-blast power roof ventilator
mal plume. The newer codes will relate The four categories of cooking equip- (PRV) is the fan most often selected for
cfm per linear foot of hood to the cook- ment tested are listed according to the this duty. This type of fan is a compact
ing surface temperature hood tests as cooking surface temperature: unit and, with the proper curb, dis-
conducted per UL 710 Standard. This UL • Light duty such as ovens, steamers charges the exhaust at least 40 in. (100
cfm is a minimum established under test and small kettles up to 400°F (200°C). cm) above the roof surface to satisfy the
conditions. Consider using a value of • Medium duty such as large kettles, requirement in Section 4-8.2.1 of NFPA
10% to 15% more cfm to deal with field ranges, griddles and fryers up to 400°F 96 designed to keep the grease off the
conditions. (200°C). roof surface.
The UL710 rating is based on the fol- • Heavy duty such as upright boil- The up-blast PRV has some shortcom-
lowing tests: ers, charbroilers and woks up to 600°F ings. Its static pressure is normally lim-
a. Temperature test with minimum (315°C). ited to 2.0 to 2.5-in. w.c. (500 to 600 Pa).
cfm and cooking equipment on. Tem- • Extra heavy duty such as solid-fuel This limitation becomes a problem when
perature rise is measured. equipment up to 700°F (370°C).
b. Cooking test with minimum cfm The design exhaust rate is the desired About the Author
and cooking 70% lean meat patties. No airflow rate in cfm/ft times the length of John A. Clark, P.E., is an associate
smoke spillage allowed. the hood canopy. Table 1 is reproduced vice president in the Mechanical Engi-
c. Abnormal flare-up with minimum from the 1999 ASHRAE Handbook—Ap- neering Group of Hammel, Green and
cfm, 1 pint (473 mL) of grease is ignited. plications. Abrahamson, Inc. in Minneapolis.
October 2001 ASHRAE Journal 37
ASHRAE Journal
there is a long exhaust duct and/or when Minimum Exhaust Flow Rate, cfm per linear foot of hood
the hood contains cartridge-type filters Type of Hood Light Duty Medium Duty Heavy Duty Extra Heavy Duty
that have greater resistance than baffle- Wall-Mounted Canopy 150 to 200 200 to 300 200 to 400 350+
type filters. For example, a cartridge-type Single Island 250 to 300 300 to 400 300 to 600 550+
hood designed for charbroilers at 300 cfm Double Island (per side) 150 to 200 200 to 300 250 to 400 500+
per linear foot (43 L/s per linear meter) Eyebrow 150 to 200 150 to 250 — —
has a static pressure loss of 1.5 in. w.c. B a ck S h el f / Pa s s O v e r 10 0 t o 2 0 0 20 0 t o 3 0 0 30 0 t o 4 0 0 N o t R e c o mmended
(370 Pa). This does not leave much static Table 1: Typical minimum exhaust flow rates for listed Type 1 hoods for cooking
pressure capacity for the ductwork and equipment type.
stack outlet losses. If the fan cannot de-
velop the necessary static pressure, it will
not move its design exhaust volume. The
result will be grease discharged out of Minimum
Extended
40 in.
the fan outlet and onto the roof and/or Base
Discharge Drain
nearby surfaces. Height Roof
When large amounts of grease appear Vented Base
on the fan or roof, often the cfm is below Horizontal
design values. Once the fan capacity is PRV
Centrifugal Fan
Utility Set
returned to its proper cfm, the grease dis-
charge drops significantly. Figure 1: Typical exhaust outlets.
The condition of grease discharge at
low exhaust cfms is a result of not enough
air at the filter surface to cool vaporized D+1
grease and moisture. The cooling at this D+1 4D
point is needed for the filters to remove Drain Lip 4D 6 in.
grease. The grease and water vapor are 6 in. Min. D Min.
separated from the airstream at the filter, D
if condensing can occur at the filter sur-
face. The larger particles are then sepa- Drain Roof
rated as the air changes direction as it
passes through the filter bank. If the pro-
cess produces a large amount of vapor, From Indoor Fan
water mist can be used to cool the vapors Figure 2: High velocity vertical discharge.
at the hood. The ASHRAE-sponsored re-
search project to measure what is contained in the kitchen and the direction of discharge. The discharge plume will tend
exhaust confirmed this cooling and condensing phenomenon. to remain at the elevation where the discharge vector is over-
If the up-blast PRV is not appropriate, what other types of come by the wind vector. The result is that nearby intakes re-
fans can be used? A utility fan set with backward inclined entrain the exhaust contaminants. The average discharge
blades is a good choice for systems with higher static pres- velocity from PRV units is 1,000 fpm (5 m/s).
sure requirements. The fan set should have the UL 762 rating Therefore, with a 15 mph (24 km/h) crosswind, the discharge
for high temperature service. The fan arrangement can be will stay at the 40-in. (100 cm) discharge above the roof. Also,
horizontal if the discharge is at least 40 in. (100 cm) off the with the fan’s low profile, the stack outlet is vulnerable to wind
roof, or it can be upwards. An in-line fan with the motor lo- backwash from adjacent structures. To make matters worse, the
cated out of the airstream and belt/pulley protection from exhaust fan and the replacement air unit often are surrounded
grease is another choice. A horizontal or vertical discharge is by a visual screen or wall enclosure. In these cases, the dis-
acceptable with the proper bearing and support. Consider- charge effluent often stays within the enclosure and is re-en-
ation should be given to drain the rain and moisture that may trained into the replacement air system.
reach the fan scroll. Drain outlets are available in the lower Figure 2 illustrates a proven design that has been success-
area of the fan scroll. Exhaust stack configurations may be ful in industrial and laboratory exhaust systems. The design
one of the types as shown in Figure 1. Some fan manufactur- outlet velocity of these stacks should be in the 2,500 to 3,000
ers lay the centrifugal fan wheel in a horizontal arrangement fpm (13 to 15 m/s) range. The discharge plume will extend
and angle the outlet upwards. This is a specialized arrange- another 5 to 10 ft (1.5 to 3 m) above the stack outlet before
ment that can be considered. the wind vector turns the plume horizontal. This height sepa-
ration keeps the exhaust out of intakes that are below the
Stack Discharge plane of the plume discharge. Induced air from the drain open-
Fan discharge stack design often is neglected. Most designs ing also dilutes the odor and smoke particulate in the ex-
simply satisfy the height requirement above the roof surface haust air. If the exhaust is unusually odorous or smoky, air
38 ASHRAE Journal w w w. a s h r a e j o u r n a l . o r g October 2001
 Kitchen Exhaust

Figure 3: Exhaust stack dilution inlet.

can be introduced into the exhaust air-

stream before the fan (Figure 3). Butterfly Damper
1/2 × 1/2
Outlet stack velocity is governed only Mesh
by the consideration for fan static pres- Screen
sure/horsepower and noise. The stack
height is usually about 10 ft (3 m) above
the roof surface. At velocities above
3,000 fpm (15 m/s), the velocity pres-
sure loss of duct fittings increases, re-
Roof
quiring more fan horsepower, and the
velocity noise rises above NC 40 levels,
which is objectionable. The stack can
be round and made of stainless steel, alu-
minum, or painted galvanized steel,
to minimize visual objection to the Figure 4: Typical closure damper arrangement.
stack.
An exhaust stack for a system that shuts down at night in a does not impinge on the hood face and drop down, which
cold climate causes problems. The problems are heat loss from disturbs the thermal plume. Typical supply air outlets are per-
the building up the stack; start-up problems moving cold dense forated panels or grilles in the front face of the hood, slot dif-
air up a multistory stack; and freezing of sprinkler heads at the fusers blowing away from the hood face, low velocity mass
roofline near the stack outlet. One solution to these problems flow down discharge diffusers, backwall discharge ducts be-
is to provide a closure damper at or near the system outlet. The low the cooking surface, and vaned diffusers located away
authority having jurisdiction often allows a closure damper at from the hood face. Hood side curtains control disturbing cross
the horizontal discharge of the centrifugal fan or in the inlet to drafts at the hood. The replacement air quantity must come
the fan at the roof curb, if the damper is accessible at the roofline from outdoor air intakes of supply units to the space. These
(Figure 4). outdoor air intakes cannot be closed after occupancy in an
attempt to save energy.
Replacement Air Concept
Replacement air for the air exhausted should come mainly Conclusion
from the kitchen area. Ten to 15% of the outdoor air can be To achieve more predictable and reliable performance from
transferred from the dining area adjacent to the kitchen. This a kitchen exhaust system, select UL-listed hoods appropriate
is also advantageous to control the migration of cooking for the cooking equipment and select a fan that will produce
odors into the dining area. Be careful that the transfer air the tested minimum cfm at the system static pressure. Select
path does not occur mainly at the pass-through window fan types that will not re-entrain the exhaust back into the
between the kitchen and the dining room. The air velocity outdoor air intakes. Provide an appropriate exhaust stack that
tends to cool off the food resting on the shelf in the pass- directs the discharge away from the same level as outdoor air
through window. intakes. Provide replacement air supply devices that do not
The supply air to the kitchen should be through outlets that disturb the thermal plume from cooking surfaces. Balance the
do not disturb the rising thermal plume off the cooking sur- outdoor inlet cfm to the exhaust cfm. Lack of attention to one
face. Avoid using four-way diffusers at or near the hood canopy. or more of the components listed previously is likely to cause
The goal is to avoid blowing toward the hood so the airflow failed or substandard kitchen exhaust systems.
October 2001 ASHRAE Journal 39