KV

Residential cooking can be a significant indoor source of odour, pollutants and particulate matter. Conventionally, range hoods expel the air into the ambient. A number of studies have investigated their contaminant capture performance. However, for highly energy efficient houses the installation of extracting range hoods can pose certain challenges, e.g. high ventilation losses, additional thermal bridges and potential air leakage sites.

Recirculation hoods equipped with carbon and plasma filters are becoming more and more popular. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of recirculation hoods with regard to PM2.5 and NOx removal in a 26 m3 lab kitchen with a gas furnace. With the carbon filter PM2.5 is reduced for about 30%. A fresh carbon filter removed about 60% of the NO2, dropping within a few weeks of cooking to 20%. With the plasma hood NO2 concentrations were above the WHO 1-hour limit and the Dutch health council 15 minutes limit.

Exposures to airborne fine particulate matter with a diameter of <2.5μm (PM2.5) are linked to multiple negative health effects, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Existing investigations of PM2.5 primarily focus on external sources and exposures, because outdoor air is easier to observe, and therefore, more widely monitored. However, as people spend up to 70% of their time in their own homes, exposures to indoor pollutants could have a greater impact on health. One method of investigating indoor exposures in a stock of houses is by modelling them.

A key aspect of achieving acceptable indoor air quality is source control. Cooking has been recognized as a significant source of pollutants for health impacts (e.g., PM2.5 and NO2) as well as moisture and odour. A common method of controlling this pollutant source is by using a range (or cooker) hood that vents to outside. However, field and laboratory experiments have shown highly variable performance for these devices. We use the capture efficiency metric (the fraction of the pollutants that are exhausted to outside at steady state) to characterize the range hood performance.

Air curtain assisted range hoods are very customary in large industrial kitchens. They allow to increase the capture efficiency of the range hood while lowering the net exhaust flow rate. For applications in residential settings, there is a lack of data on the performance of air curtain assisted range hoods, as well as a lack of information on the required settings and boundary conditions to come to the successful application of air curtain assisted range hoods.

The long term exposure to fine particulate matter with a diameter of ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) is linked to numerous health problems, including chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. In dwellings, a primary emission source of PM2.5 is cooking, an activity conducted several times per day in most households. People spend over 90% of their time indoors and more time in their homes than any other type of building. Therefore, they are at risk of exposure to elevated levels of PM2.5 emitted by cooking if these particles are not removed at source.

In typical Chinese commercial kitchens, the large amount of heat and moisture that is generated must be removed. The ventilation and energy consumption rates can be huge. Middle and small scale commercial kitchens in China produce an exhaust airflow rate so large that without a reasonably effective ventilation system, the temperature and contaminant concentrations are far more than acceptable levels. To fulfil all the requirements of indoor air conditioning in an economical manner, a new air distribution pattern called air curtain ventilation (ACV) is presented in this study.

Cooking devices are a major source of contaminants in dwellings. They cause exposure to combustion products and vapors. The type and production rate of contaminants depend on the heating type (gas vs. electric cooking) and cooking process (frying vs.

Carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and particulate matter (PM) are harmful air pollutants that pose significant short- and long-term health risks. Emitted from coal-fired power plants, vehicle exhaust pipes, and other combustion sources, they’re among six primary pollutants monitored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Air Act. These same pollutants are also some of the most common contributors to unhealthy air inside U.S. homes, due in part to a ubiquitous and possibly surprising activity: cooking.