Heat Gain and Emissions Inside the Kitchen Cooking

By admin on November 14th, 2007

Heat Gain and Emissions Inside the Kitchen

Cooking can be described as a process that adds heat
to food. As heat is applied to the food, effluent (1) is
released into the surrounding environment. This
effluent release includes water vapour, organic
material released from the food itself, and heat that
was not absorbed by the food being cooked. Often,
when pre-cooked food is reheated, a reduced amount
of effluent is released, but water vapour is still emitted
into the to the surrounding space.
The hot cooking surface (or fluid, such as oil) and
products create thermal air currents (called a thermal
plume) that are received or captured by the hood and
then exhausted. If this thermal plume is not totally
captured and contained by the hood, they become a
heat load to the space.
There are numerous secondary sources of heat in the
kitchen (such as lighting, people, and hot meals) that
contribute to the cooling load.