Reduce the energy costs of your kitchen range hood

The Eco Hottes ventilation system

Installation of the on-demand ventilation system helps owners to lower the costs of heating or make-up air by up to 60%. The system features three components: make-up air vented by the range hood; air pressure balance; and recovery of radiant heat from cooking appliances.

Variable airflow for range hood exhaust 

To adjust the airflow of range hoods to cooking appliances, we install a temperature sensor in the duct for each exhaust vent. The sensor is connected to a frequency converter, which regulates the speed of the fan motor. The motor adjusts ventilation airflow through the range hood fan according to the heat radiated by cooking appliances. The airflow becomes variable, depending on the appliance’s use.

What this means: range hoods with this type of control do not exhaust air needlessly outside the building.

Air pressure management:

Many restaurants have issues with negative air pressure. This problem is caused primarily by an air make-up unit that is insufficient to the need for outgoing airflow.

Negative pressure invariably leads to air entering the building envelope. As a result, the building gets colder in the winter, causing the heating systems to overwork; conversely, in the summer, the building gets warmer, which taxes the cooling systems. In short, there is an overconsumption of energy for both heating and cooling. To completely eliminate the problem, we ensure that make-up air is variable and, consequently, more efficient. This is achieved by installing pressure sensors so that interior/exterior building pressure is balanced. The principle is simple: we balance the indoor/outdoor temperature differential at zero.

Recovery of heat from cooking appliances:

Our system includes the installation of a kitchen thermostat to lower and control the discharge temperature of the make-up air unit near cooking areas, which keeps the air make-up unit at a fixed temperature. This results in significant savings, since the incoming airflow is at its maximum and no longer needs to be set to 21°C but can be left at a more economical 5°C or 10°C.

What about heat in the summer?

The Eco Hottes on-demand ventilation system has a “summer” mode that sets exhaust fans to their maximum during the summer months. Cooler outdoor air lowers the temperature in the kitchen as the indoor/outdoor air pressure sensors maintain the balance of the building’s temperature differential. With this balance achieved, your air conditioning system will have no need to work overtime!

Don’t forget to turn off exhaust fans at the end of the day.

Our system has an automatic shutdown that will turn off exhaust fans if someone forgets to do so.

How you save on energy costs:

The savings add up in many ways. As explained earlier:

• With the exhaust airflow through the range hood adapted to cooking appliances, heated air is no longer being needlessly evacuated outdoors.
  
• At the same time, the air make-up unit is no longer operating needlessly at full power, since its airflow is also variable. Less outgoing air means less incoming air.
  
• Furthermore, the air make-up unit’s discharge temperature is lower. During the winter months, less energy is being used to heat incoming air.
  
• With no imbalance between indoor and outdoor air pressure, warm air in winter and cool air in summer are no longer exhausted outdoors by kitchen fans.

BONUS : Greater comfort for occupants: priceless!

Installation

We install only the equipment that is required to operate the ventilation system. Your usual activities will not be disrupted. Installation usually takes between 2 and 3 days.

 

Available subsidies

Your utility company offers subsidies of up to 70% of your investment

 

Natural gas
Gaz Métro » gazmetro.com
Enbridge » enbridge.com
Gazifère » gazifere.com

 

Electricity
Hydro Québec » hydroquebec.com

 

Government
Natural resources » mern.gouv.qc.ca