We have an exhaust fan, make-up air and air conditioner. It was 73* outside today and somehow it was 86* in the kitchen. I think it’s always been like that. I’ve always just accepted that’s how things were. But now I’m beginning to wonder if I am wasting money having the A/C working against the make-up air. Or the exhaust fan sucking out cold air. Or the A/C not being big enough to actually cool the building like we want.
HVAC is definitely a weak area for me. Can someone please explain it to me and let me know if it sounds like there’s a problem somewhere along the line ?
Sounds like a George Mills question… I would send him a PM as he knows the in’s and out’s of the vent systems. Good luck as hot kitchens do suck!
Hi Td:
You stated “We have an exhaust fan, make-up air and air conditioner. It was 73* outside today and somehow it was 86* in the kitchen.”
I am quite sure I can give you the cause of your problem and the solution.
To define the problem accurately, for your particular location and propose a solution accurately. May I ask? What is the size of your hood and how many CFM of air are you exhausting? What equipment (make & model) do you have under your hood. Do you have seating? The size of your building? Also how many tons of A/C do you have? Where are you located?
George Mills
Today we went into our South location and draped plastic sheeting off of the oven hood near the back corners in an effort to trap the heat that manages to escape into the room. It looks totally ridiculous but I’ll be darned if the plan didn’t work. Temperature dropped in the rear of the kitchen from about 90 degrees yesterday to an oh-so-comfortable-by-comparison 80 degrees this afternoon.
We’re thinking a permanent (and easy) solution would be to hang some “freezer curtains” in the problem spots. Sort of like this:
http://www.curtronproducts.com/images/Coolkeeper.jpg
But without choking off the airflow.
Sometimes those axial fans that circulate the ambient air away from the fan motors can eject a lot of heat into the room. Ours have deflectors on them but it still isn’t quite enough.
you should climb up on the roof and check the filters on your make-up air unit. Also check the filters in your AC system too.
I did some computer work for a place and they were complaining about it being so hot in the kitchen. Climbed up on the roof and the screen on the make-up air fan was clogged to the point I had a heck of a time removing it because of the vacuum against it from the fan. Once they hosed it out for me and I could see through it again, it was amazing how much better their exhaust hood worked.
Check your fan belts to. I replace mine every 6 months automatically.
Hi Brad:
You stated; Today we went into our South location and draped plastic sheeting off of the oven hood near the back corners in an effort to trap the heat that manages to escape into the room. It looks totally ridiculous but I’ll be darned if the plan didn’t work. Temperature dropped in the rear of the kitchen from about 90 degrees yesterday to an oh-so-comfortable-by-comparison 80 degrees this afternoon.
We’re thinking a permanent (and easy) solution would be to hang some “freezer curtains” in the problem spots.
Sometimes those axial fans that circulate the ambient air away from the fan motors can eject a lot of heat into the room. Ours have deflectors on them but it still isn’t quite enough.
Response:
Re fan motors ejecting a lot of air into the room.
If hot air is blowing from your oven into the room your hood is probably not properly designed, the hood exhaust fan fan is not properly designed and the make up air unit, if you have one, is not properly designed.
Re freezer curtains hanging around the hood to contain heat. That concept enjoyed a spate of popularity many years ago. Its like, “there is a hole in the boat water is coming in, drill another hole in the boat to let the water out”.
As I recall there were some warranty problems for equipment thus confined. You should have an unrestricted flow of air around your oven. Again if that was an efficacious method of cooling the work area I think that thousands of operators would have adopted it.
We have equipped several thousands of pizza shops. I know of none of them that have curtains around their ovens.
Is there a major chain that uses curtains around their ovens?
George mills
Thanks for your help everyone.
Stebby1 hit it right on the head. Once I read his post I realized that we haven’t changed an air filter or fan belt in the 3 years and 9 months we’ve been here. I’m embarrassed to say that, but that’s what it was.
Thanks for the reminder I have not changed my filters yet this spring. Off to get filters 