If you’re in charge of Thanksgiving dinner at your home this year, take a few minutes to look over your options for kitchen ventilation. If the day is warm and sunny, you might find yourself turning on the A/C just to cool the kitchen area off.
Thanksgiving dinner creates a lot of heat in the kitchen. The oven’s baking the turkey, dressing and pies, while the burners on the stove are cooking all the vegetables. If you start early by baking what you can ahead of time and refrigerating it, you’re preheating your kitchen. Add to it all the people you’re going to hosting, and you have the recipe for an uncomfortable home.
Putting a plan into place before the heat builds will keep you and everyone else more comfortable and you may not need to turn on the A/C. Look over your kitchen for:
Windows.
Try to open each to see how easily it opens. If it’s stuck, do what you can to defrost it.
Kitchen ventilation fan.
Inspect your fan to see whether it vents outdoors. An exhaust fan that doesn’t vent outdoors won’t help you with kitchen ventilation. It just recirculates the hot, steamy and possibly smoky air coming off the burners and the oven.
Exterior doors.
Some kitchens have a door to the outdoors or one leading into the garage. Minus a window and ventilation fan, this may be the best way to exhaust the hot air.
Fans.
Find a portable fan that you could use to exhaust air to the outdoors or pull in fresh, cooler air.
If your kitchen ventilation fan exhausts outdoors, make it the centerpiece for your strategy to cool the house down quickly. While it will work by itself, the kitchen will cool off faster if you open a kitchen window or nearby exterior door. You can also put a fan in the window or door if your fan doesn’t exhaust outdoors.
If you learn that your kitchen ventilation isn’t as effective as it should be, contact Ace Hardware Home Services, providing HVAC and ventilation services for Dayton-area homeowners.
