How ventilation is built in the kitchen: rules and diagrams of the hood

Alexey Dedyulin
Checked by a specialist: Alexey Dedyulin
Author: Elena Mezhenina
Last update: March 2024

As a result of the widespread use of plastic windows in the kitchens of our homes, the natural ventilation, which was provided by the wooden frames, was disrupted. Meanwhile, effective ventilation in the kitchen is a must.

And it is necessary to organize it competently, so that instead of extracting kitchen air, you do not get an influx of “aromas” from neighboring apartments or from the toilet. You are also worried about this problem, but you do not know where to start? In our material, we will focus on the arrangement of ventilation in the kitchen. We will talk about the types of hoods and the nuances of their installation.

Why ventilate the kitchen?

Most domestic apartments are equipped with stoves, which use natural gas. In the process of its combustion, carbon dioxide is formed, the toxic properties of which are manifested as its concentration in the air increases.

The most reasonable and modern solution to this problem is the installation of hoods and forced ventilation of the room.

Cooker hood needed
A modern range hood is an indispensable attribute of a kitchen if there is a gas stove in it: it can be used to remove unburned and carbon dioxide from a room

So, ventilation is necessary even if the gas stove works perfectly. The need for it increases with errors in the setup of equipment, which can cause the emission of carbon monoxide. It is much more dangerous than carbon dioxide, and its presence may not be noticed: this gas has neither color nor smell.

In addition, gas or natural gas may not completely burn out, accumulating in the air. There are situations when the burner flame goes out. For example, he was flooded with "runaway" milk. If there is no special protection, then the gas entering the room can provoke an explosion that can cause troubles throughout the house.

It turns out that, starting to work with a gas stove, you must immediately turn on the exhaust fan. But the presence in the kitchen of an electric stove does not reduce the significance of ventilation of this room.

The burning of food, which often happens among lovers of fried potatoes and fish, is accompanied by the release of harmful compounds that are formed as a result of the pyrolysis of organic compounds. Those who prefer steamed products know that evaporation leads to an increase in humidity in the room. And its level also needs to be lowered.

And even supporters of the smell of fresh pastries understand that it is impossible to saturate the whole apartment with this wonderful aroma. A mixture of odors that are attractive at first, over time, becomes a mishmash of partially decomposed volatile organics, the presence of which in the air is unlikely to be liked by anyone.

Humidity increase in the kitchen
Even if your kitchen is equipped with an electric hob, an extractor hood will come in handy to lower the humidity in the room and eliminate cooking odors from it.

Conclusion: the hood in a modern kitchen is not a tribute to fashion, but a vital necessity.

Varieties of cooker hoods

Different user needs force manufacturers to develop proposals that are optimally suited to the needs of a particular buyer. Therefore, the range of exhaust devices for the kitchen, which offers us the modern market of household appliances, is quite wide. We will try to understand their diversity.

According to the method of cleaning air masses

There are many ways to clean the air in the kitchen.

Depending on which one is used in a particular model, hoods are divided into:

  • Evacuators. These models take the air out of the kitchen to the outside through ducts made in the form of a metal duct or corrugated pipe. For such a device to work, you must have a ventilation duct or a simple hole. Typically, a duct is provided with a valve to prevent back draft.
  • Circulating. This model provides carbon filtersimilar to a gas mask.In fact, this is not a hood, but a filter unit that cleans the air of the main "aromas": there is no air exchange with the external environment. Such a device attracts by its simple installation, but it is not able to protect, for example, from gas leakage.

Circulation hoods can be adjacent to the regular ventilation of the kitchen. Their disadvantages usually include high cost and expensive maintenance: carbon filters require periodic replacement.

Evacuation hood
The circulation model of the cooker hood will not help you if carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide has accumulated in the room, and the evacuator can easily cope with this problem.

A feature of the evacuation hood is that it also removes excess heat, which is always generated during cooking. The circulation model does not have such a function.

Structural division

In addition to the main function, buyers pay attention to other distinctive characteristics of various models. The exhaust device should fit well into the general interior of the room, be convenient to use and also: well, if it were possible to save and install it yourself.

Therefore, modern hoods differ not only air purification capacity, but also by the installation method, design, material of manufacture and the presence of additional options.

Dome hood
A fireplace or hood hood is often found in our homes: it is important that the area of ​​the lower part of its dome corresponds to the area of ​​the stove installed in the room

According to the type of design, the exhaust devices are divided into:

  • Dome. This model got its name due to the shape of the air intake. It looks like a truncated pyramid, whose dome is located directly above the stove. An air duct departs from the hole in the upper part of the dome, transporting air outside the kitchen through the hole in the wall or through the ventilation duct.
  • Recessed. This hood is located inside the furniture in the kitchen. Often integrated hood it is equipped with a pull-out panel, which allows you to economically use the space of the room and, at the same time, provide comfortable control of the equipment.

Before ordering furniture and buying a range hood, you should plan your kitchen so that pieces of furniture and household appliances do not interfere with each other, look aesthetically pleasing, and use them would be convenient.

Spatial planning is very important when installing a built-in hood. As a rule, if the hood is not included in the kit initially, furniture for it is made to order. At the same time, all the nuances must be provided that allow you to nicely and neatly arrange all the elements of the built-in equipment.

Location Classification

Exhaust equipment is installed in the kitchen, taking into account various factors: the size of the room, the location of the stove, and so on.

Extractor hood
It’s good if there are high ceilings in the room of your kitchen, then a modest wall-mounted hood will look very impressive

At the installation site, the hoods are divided into:

  • Wall mounted. In this case, one side of the hood dome is adjacent directly to the wall, and the second is above the stove.
  • Corner Placing the stove in the corner not only saves the kitchen area, but also makes the hob more accessible. The very design of the dome of the corner hood has a shape in which its two sides fit into the corner of the room, fitting tightly against the walls.
  • Island. The lucky ones who have a large kitchen room can afford the installation of an island structure. It is placed above the stove located in the center of the room.

In the assortment of produced models there are various in form options for hoods. For example, flat models are mounted under furniture so as to hang over the stove.

Island hood
What can we say about the kitchens, the area of ​​which allows you to place the stove and work table right in the middle of the room, and the hood - above the island stove

Before installing the hood in the kitchen yourself, you must carefully study the instructions. Each model has its own nuances of installation, but some general rules apply to all hoods.

This is the height at which they should be located relative to the surface of the plate. For gas stoves, the distance is from 75 cm, and for electric stoves - not less than 65 cm.

Rules for installing the hood
The rules for installing the hood are not so many, but they must be strictly followed, because they are dictated by the safety of home owners

So, the lower installation level is determined, the upper one is selected independently. And it depends on the growth of the apartment owners: using a stove and hood should be convenient. For more details on the nuances of installing the hood, read this stuff.

Most often, modern customers prefer built-in models. They are cheaper, and it is quite simple to mount them with your own hands.

Schematic diagram of a kitchen hood

The composition of any hood includes the following elements:

  • Fan with electric motor. A multi-speed asynchronous motor rotates the exhaust fan, thanks to which air flows through filters that trap grease.
  • Filters All hoods are equipped grease filters reusable or disposable. Carbon filters are present only in circulation models and act similarly to activated carbon. Their replacement is performed every 3-4 months of operation.
  • Lighting lamps. Lighting on the hob is performed using incandescent lamps, LED or halogen lighting devices.
  • Speed ​​shift scheme. In different models, speed switching is carried out in various ways: using touch devices, using buttons or using a slide switch.

Take a look at the standard wiring diagram for the hood, in which all the elements mentioned above are present.

The scheme of the hood in the kitchen
The standard wiring diagram for the hood for the kitchen includes all the main elements listed by us above, and the procedure for connecting them is presented

Design Safety

A fan is necessarily included in the exhaust equipment kit, which means that the exhaust hood must be connected to a power outlet. If you have just started repairing in a new apartment, be sure to provide a separate outlet for the hood, because this equipment must always be in a connected state.

Employment of the outlet with a single device allows you to hide it behind the elements of the furniture set. But do not forget to provide easy access to it. There is another important rule: the outlet should be located no closer than 60 cm from the sink and from the stove.

Remember that this range hood is an electric appliance that can shock you, so you need to be serious about electrical safety.

A kitchen, like a bathroom, is a room in which it can be both hot and humid at the same time. Excess moisture and fat from cooking settles on the exhaust grill. This creates favorable conditions for electrical breakdown on the metal casing from the fan motor. For this reason, the device should be connected to the mains using three wires.

Fan connection diagram
The connection diagram of the fan, which is included in the complete set of the kitchen hood, clearly demonstrates that three wires are needed: phase, zero and ground

The wiring must include zero, phase, and ground. The ground wire is easily distinguished by yellow insulation and a longitudinal green stripe. Modern houses are equipped in advance with Euro outlets and a ground loop. In this case, it is sufficient to connect the ground wire to the corresponding plug terminal. It is easy to distinguish it from others by the icon in the form of three different-sized parallel lines.

Older buildings may not have ground loops.In this case, you need to take care of the protection yourself. In the event of a breakdown on the chassis, grounding will allow the circuit breaker to trip. In addition, it is necessary for equalizing potentials.

As an additional protection, it is recommended that the wiring for the hood outlet be made as a separate cable with protection for the RCD and the circuit breaker.

How to make a protective grounding yourself?

To build a protective grounding in the old house, it is absolutely not necessary to dig a trench and drive metal pins into the ground. The exhaust equipment must not be grounded to the water supply system, heating plant and, especially, to the gas pipe. This is dangerous not only for you, but also for neighbors.

For an earthing device in an old building, you need to find a dead neutral and connect to it. To do this, open the introductory shield at your entrance or in the apartment. The wires entering it are enclosed in a pipe, which is walled up in the wall. It should have a threaded pin, possibly with a previously connected ground. This is the desired blank neutral: the pipe is reliably grounded.

You need to take a flexible stranded wire, the cross section of which is at least 2.5 mm2, and hold it from neutral to the installation location of the outlet. The hood should be connected to the network using a 6.3 amp automatic disconnector.

Socket placement example
The socket is hidden behind the elements of the built-in furniture, but access to it is very easy to get: just open the desired door

As mentioned above, other earthing can be on a dead neutral. They can not be turned off. Throw your terminal over existing ones and fasten it with a nut. With a smooth neutral surface, a clamp can be used to secure the ground. It’s great if the electrician of your Management Company will participate in this work.

Possible ventilation problems

When installing the hood, the regular ventilation system of the apartment may be disrupted. An attempt to solve this problem is punching specifically for drawing an additional hole out or into the ventilation channel. But the desired effect cannot be achieved in this way. The cross-sectional area of ​​the same ventilation duct does not increase when another hole appears in it.

With a successful combination of circumstances, only ¾ children from the kitchen will go to the canal, and ¼ will remain in the apartment. If there is a strong wind outside or there is a craving from the lower floors, then all the cinders will return to the kitchen or go to the neighbors, which can result in a ruined relationship with them.

As for the air outlet through the breakdown in the wall, the bearing structure is affected. Such work must first be agreed upon, and a draft of the changes to be made. In addition, such a solution creates the risk of condensation settling both in the duct and on the fan motor. Then a breakdown on the case is almost inevitable.

Clapper hood operation diagram
The operation principle of a hood with a clapperboard reveals well the principle of its functioning: air masses will not flow through the duct back into the kitchen

As a way out of this situation, it is proposed to use an additional section of the air box equipped with a clapper valve. A diagram of this device is shown below.

Under the exhaust duct, you need a square-shaped window, the side of which is ¾ of the diameter of the duct. This allows its cross-sectional area to correspond to a similar duct area. The perimeter will be slightly smaller than the circumference of the duct. Then, with the connection, complexity will not arise.

The damper can be made of aluminum with a thickness of 0.5 mm or of the same thickness of fluoroplastic or fiberglass. An aluminum product is preferable, because not only the stiffness and thickness of the material, but also its lightness is important. Clapper operation will be more effective with a lower specific gravity of the material from which it was made.

The damper is equipped with a weak thin spring. Its function is as follows: when the shutter is raised to the upper position and the effect on it ceases, it should smoothly return to its place. If the spring is slightly stretched, but stiff, then for our purpose it will not work.

The wire constituting the spring should have a diameter of 0.2-0.3 mm. With a length of 120-150 mm, the diameter of the spring itself should be 3-5 mm.

For more information on how to properly connect a cooker hood to ventilation, read Further.

Use of odor neutralizers

Often, kitchen hoods provide odor neutralizers.

In our stores you can find three types of converters:

  • Chemical. These neutralizers need to be changed often, because they are quickly tightened with a grease film and cease to act, without having fully developed their own resource. In addition, they themselves exude compounds that can be harmful to health.
  • Electroionization. If you have an ionizer, then the principle of operation of this device is also familiar to you. But in any room of the house, harmful substances are in a much lower concentration than in the kitchen above the hob. To neutralize them, a strong discharge is needed, which can also harm the hostess standing at the stove.
  • Ultraviolet. When using neutralizers of this type, it is sometimes necessary to clean the bulbs of plaque and change them approximately every two years. But these bulbs are not cheap. But such a neutralizer is safe for human health. Moreover, the lamps emit not only ultraviolet, but also light: white or with a slight blue.

Armed with the information received, we will choose the necessary neutralizer not blindly, but competently.

A few words about the ducts

The duct kit is not included in the hood kit. It will have to be bought separately. It is believed that a metal box with a rectangular cross section looks more aesthetic corrugation aluminumbut he also has his own merits.

Corrugation as a duct
Anyone who believes that the corrugation does not look too attractive may be wrong: under certain conditions, it can even decorate the interior

The corrugation should be chosen with a diameter that corresponds to the inlet at the top of the hood. If the length of this pipe is less than 1.5 meters, then the aerodynamic drag of this material is practically negligible compared to the random losses resulting from turbulence in the ventilation. Corrugation is easy to cut with ordinary scissors.

The corrugation can be squared to connect it with a clapperboard. She completely lacks the resonant properties that sometimes arise in hard boxes. If you still prefer to buy corrugation, then cooking in your home will never be accompanied by a monotonous hum.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

The recommendations of a specialist in this video will help you not to get confused, considering the models of exhaust devices that modern supermarkets of electrical household appliances offer you. The choice must be made with knowledge of the matter, so listen to the advice of a professional:

When installing the hood, non-standard situations may occur. The wizard’s practical tips that you will find in this video will help you cope with the task:

You can build ventilation in the kitchen with your own hands. But before you get started, you need to find out what types of exhaust devices the modern market offers, what rules and hood design for the kitchen exist.

If you had to deal with the arrangement of kitchen ventilation and have something to advise our readers, or there are questions that you would like to receive an answer to, please leave your comments in the block below.

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Visitors Comments
  1. Pavel Simonov

    Interestingly, of course, it was written at the very beginning - and who said that absolutely everyone has plastic windows installed? Now there are a lot of modern wooden windows, this trend is simple. Everywhere are installed. But not the point. As for the corrugation - it used to be considered unattractive, now designers somehow beat this moment and very often people ask it to install the corrugation, and not the metal box.

  2. Tatyana

    While I was living with my mother, I didn’t think much about the fact that utilization of kitchen air is so necessary in the apartment. We always ventilated the room carefully, and there were no problems with smells. When I moved to my future husband, I saw this miracle of technology. The kitchen was located in the apartment in such a way that it was not possible to remove smells simply by opening the window, it was too far away. Our range hood has three modes, is switched by buttons and the whole aroma of food moves to the toilet. But it happened several times something burned out and the hood could not cope even in the most powerful mode.

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