Overcoming Uncomfortable Kitchen Environments
Restaurant operators face plenty of ongoing challenges such as increasing traffic, training and retaining staff, and managing inventory levels and operational costs. Yet, one major and often overlooked challenge is the comfort and safety of the kitchen environment itself and the staff that maintains it. Improperly designed commercial kitchens are hot places to work which can not only affect the well-being of the building but can also lead to severe health problems and lower productivity levels of employees. Hot kitchens can impact the health of staff and the dining experiences of guests along with costly employee turnover. Understanding the roles that exhaust hoods, fans, and make-up air units play in controlling air quality and replacing fresh air back in kitchen and dining spaces is critical, both in overcoming uncomfortable kitchen environments and in overall business success.
Considering the Consequences
ASHRAE research suggests that an ideal kitchen environment should be between 70°F and 75°F with 50% relative humidity. In poorly designed commercial kitchens, temperatures can reach or exceed 100°F especially when working in front of certain appliances such as open grills and pizza ovens and in warmer climates where controlling indoor temperatures is an even greater challenge. Employees working in excessively conditions, such as hot kitchens, have incurred a variety of health-related issues including heat rashes, heat exhaustion, and even heat stroke—particularly when exposed to hot and humid environments over long periods of time.1 Plus, overly hot conditions can result in frequent absences, poor work performance and reduced productivity which all leads to poor service and operational inefficiencies.2
Food integrity also suffers when commercial kitchen temperatures are not maintained at ideal levels. Consider how hot environments can cause foods like cheese and meat on a charcuterie board to sweat and certain foods to lose crispiness and get soggy. With food costs and supply chain issues mounting, throwing food away is an expensive repercussion of an overly hot environment.
Another consequence of excessive kitchen temperatures is lower employee retention resulting in hefty costs related to recruiting new hires and training restaurant staff. According to figures from the Society for Human Resource Management, Investopedia, and The Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell, an hourly employee can end up costing a company $3.5k in turnover costs and more than $5k per person for a typical front-line employee.3 In addition, the Recruiting and Turnover Report indicates that the average cost of turnover per manager in the restaurant industry is upwards of $13k.4 Maintaining top talent is invaluable to a restaurant’s operation, saving thousands in recruitment costs and in providing consistent service and optimal performance of both front- and back-of-house staff.
Solutions for Preventing Uncomfortable Kitchen Spaces
During the design phase of any commercial kitchen project, the restaurant’s kitchen ventilation specialist ensures that correct ventilation equipment is selected and configured to perform as expected while working together as one seamless system. Considerations are based on individual appliance requirements, kitchen size and dining spaces and other specific ventilation needs such as heating, cooling, and dehumidification capabilities. Renovating an existing kitchen is another situation where owners could make adjustments to their current ventilation systems. Upgrading commercial kitchen equipment is a wise investment for improving the air quality and balancing internal temperatures of existing kitchen spaces and in turn, enhancing a building’s health and the wellness of staff and guests.
Let’s consider a few equipment solutions for combatting uncomfortable kitchens:
- Exhaust Hoods & Exhaust Fans
Kitchens are hotspots for contaminated air. Cooking produces grease, steam, smoke, heat, and in some cases other byproducts such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide. Exhaust hoods and fans help to capture, contain, and remove heat and toxins from kitchen environments. Various hood and fan types are available, with energy-saving options, depending on individual kitchen design requirements.
A kitchen ventilation expert can help if issues arise with an existing hood. It’s important to determine if the hood is having capture issues preventing the hot air that is coming up and off the appliances from being vented outside. Capture issues can be caused by numerous things (i.e., lack of make-up air, not enough exhaust, not enough overhang, diffusers, and other air currents near the hood, etc.), and hoods should be inspected by a qualified ventilation expert to determine the issue at hand.
- Make-Up Air Units
Once effluent air is safely removed, fresh outside air is required to replace the air that was exhausted. It is important to select the right make-up air units (MAUs) configured to the specific commercial space and geographic location. A good example of this is when a MAU without cooling capabilities is selected in a warmer climate area, which then frequently brings in high volumes of hot and humid summer make-up air directly into the kitchen. In most cases, this air is introduced directly over the top of the cooking staff’s head. When combined with the radiated heat emitting from hot appliances, this leads to an uncomfortable kitchen environment that affects the health and productivity of staff. In this situation, an MAU with cooling capabilities is necessary to cool the hot outside air coming in before it reaches the cooking space.
Not all MAUs with cooling capacities are engineered the same. Some units do not begin cooling until the outdoor air temperature reaches at least 85°F. So, from 75°F to 84°F, they are bringing all that hot air from the outside into the kitchen. Accurex make-up air units are equipped to start cooling when the outside air temperature reaches 75°F, making them an ideal solution for bringing comfort back to kitchens.
While cooling capability may seem costly upfront, these costs can be offset by utilizing a demand control kitchen ventilation (DCKV) system. This allows you to reduce your exhaust and make-up air volume during times of low cooking load, which saves energy and reduces the cost of utilities. Choosing an MAU that can reduce the fan speed by at least 50% can result in electrical savings of up to 88%. In addition, exhaust hoods outfitted with hood-mounted temperature sensors respond to temperature changes up to five times faster than duct mounted sensors, delivering quicker airflow modulation and more efficient control and operation.
- Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems
For commercial kitchens requiring a higher percentage of fully conditioned outside air, Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS) are the ideal solution for optimal employee and patron comfort. Essentially, DOAS deliver complete temperature and humidity control before entering kitchen and dining spaces versus trying to control air temps and humidity levels after. In some cases, a single DOAS unit can replace both the make-up air and rooftop units while meeting ASHRAE’s recommendation that commercial kitchen environments be between 70°F and 75°F with 50% relative humidity.
Overly humid environments create too much moisture which can cause an indoor rain effect from duct sweating, lead to increased viral transmission5, and encourage the growth of mold spores. DOAS units remove uncomfortable humidity, unlike other make-up air systems. However, like MAUs, DOAS also allow for variable volume control for additional operational and energy efficiencies, saving money and energy with exceptional turndown capabilities. Depending on the venue, DOAS can be set up for either partial recirculation or 100% outside air, both of which can provide tempering in unoccupied mode with recirculated air. By utilizing high turndown furnaces for heating and inverter scroll compressors for cooling, Accurex DOAS units provide a consistent temperature throughout the space to avoid large swings that can lead to discomfort.
The Accurex team of qualified ventilation experts is standing by to help with selecting the right ventilation solutions to alleviate uncomfortable and unhealthy kitchen environments.
1 A restaurant owner's safety guide to keeping employees cool during summer heat, fastcasual.com
2 Does Indoor Air Quality in Restaurants Really Matter?, uHoo Business
3 The Real Costs of Recruitment, Society for Human Resource Management, April 11, 2022; The Cost of Hiring a New Employee, Investopedia, April 8, 2022; and Employee Turnover: How to Lower Restaurant Labor Costs, Rewards Network Blog.
4 The Cost of Restaurant Employee Turnover, restauranttechnologyguys.com
5 ASHRAE Position Document on Infectious Aerosols, 4/14/2020
