Very Cold Kitchen... any advice?

[pizzafanatic]

It gets downright cold (56 degrees) in the kitchen with my make-up air pulling in air from the outside (45-55 degrees). I thought my oven would help the situation, but I guess my oven is too efficient

I could turn the exhaust fan off, which brings the temp up. But I’m concerned about CO buildup. Is this a valid concern?

I’m sure that there are others with the same issue. What do you do to help bring the room temperature up a few degrees (at least above 60 would be nice).

 

[SMITH_JOHN]

…

 

[td_VP192]

Our place gets real cold some times. I think our coldest during operation was 59*.

We leave the exhaust on and turn the make-up off. It only warms things up by a few degrees, but 63* is better than 59*.

 

[Daddio]

I was required by the building code to have a furnace on my make-up air. Most of the time I don’t have it turned on but when the outside temp drops to 30below zero you can bet it is turned on.

 

[wa_dave]

Oh with the temperature hovering around the 100o mark for the next week I would love to have your problem. We can expect the kitchen to be around the 90o mark with the aircon unable to cope.

Dave

 

[pizzafanatic]

wa dave,
Ironically, I have the same problem in our Summer. I have a swamp cooler on my make-up that helps in the summer. But right now, it’s the cold that’s getting us. Today, the temp in the kitchen was hanging around 57 degrees F. I’m going to look into a heater for the make up fans, but for the time being, I’m just going to have my kitchen staff wear sweatshirts.

 

[NY_Pizza]

With drivers & customers going in & out your doors all day, I doubt you’d have to worry about CO build up, unless you’re using a wood fired oven. Try this: take the vent cover off your make up air, duct tape a pizza box over the duct (maybe leave a small opening) & replace the vent cover. If you have an actual fan pushing your make up air in, turn it off.

 

[ADpizzaguy]

Go buy one or two of those electric baseboard heaters, depending on how big your kitchen is you probably only need one or two.

 

[Fireside_Pizzeria]

My old carryout place didn’t have any heat, we used our ovens plus electric heaters to keep it warm. The building was built in 1914, so its a little drafty. We never turned on the hoods during the winter time because it would pull out all the warm air.

It just depends on your situation…

 

[pizzaguy]

I just build a fire in the kitchen with pizza boxes it works great! Ok JK We have a funace on our make up air unit that heats the air realy nice before it is pumped in. I think that is the best way to go.

 

[famouspizza]

we have heated makeup air for winter and cooled air for summer…heated works really well but my gas bill is killer
cooled air works with cold water getting sprayed into the filters to “cool” the air…doesn;t work as well but definitely helps…
most of the year we just have it on vent whixk will be the outside temp pumped in

 

[George_Mills]

Hi Pizza Fanatic; And others with make up air problems.

A properly designed ventilation system would not have the problems you folks are describing.

We almost never use a make up air unit when we do a pizza shop. They most always make a kitchen too hot in summer and really bad units make the kitchen too cold in the winter.

A properly designed 11 ft hood is available that only requires 800 CFM of make up air. That MUA can be supplied by an HVAC system with as little as 5-ton of A/C,depending on the requirements of the jurisdiction, but we use 10 ton A/C as the first 5 ton of a system breaks about even with the heat generated by the equipment in the average pizza carry out shop.

Larger and smaller size hoods with low cfm requirements are also available.

George Mills