Vent fans for kitchen

[JulianP]

Do we have any experts reference the regs here?

Just finishing off our barn conversion and the inspector has snagged a few things, nothing serious, just nonsense like restraints on the upstairs windows.

Anyway, he wants me to install an electric extractor fan in the kitchen. It is a huge kitchen diner area with high vaulted ceiling and had an outside door and three openable windows. It has an Aga electric stove that stays hot all the time and is actually the driest room in the house. Despite all this he wants me to stick a silly electric extractor fan in (those daft things that rotate faster when the wind's up when they're switched off and only appear to make noise rather than achieve anything!) This is a nonsense really, but do I have any room to maneuver here regarding exceptions or dispensations - seemingly opening a window isn't satisfactory, or should I just get on with the job?

Cheers Julian.

 

[Doggit]

Although it's the warmest room in the house, the kitchen and the bathroom create the most moisture, and the warmth of the kitchen will just allow more moisture to be absorbed, and then spread around the house. Fit an Icon 30, and don't bother using it most of the time, or consider fitting a heat recover unit.

 

[RichA]

Do you have an extractor hood above the aga/stove to extract smells? Otherwise a bathroom style extractor is the obvious option.

 

[JohnD]

if you have a wall fan, rather than a cooker hood directly over the hob, it has to be more powerful because it is less efficient at removing fumes, smells and steam.

Which would you prefer?

You are not obliged to choose "those daft things that rotate faster when the wind's up when they're switched off and only appear to make noise rather than achieve anything!)" so choose something more sensible.

 

[JulianP]

No cooker hood. He's happy with a ''bathroom style'' extractor. I have one, and a drainpipe size core drill. I just don't want to fit something that I know we'll never use. We've already cooked several roast beef dinners and the cooking smell is so minimal.

Julian

 

[JohnD]

how many cubic metres per hour did he say?

Or are you not subject to English Building Regulations?

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Punch him in the face.

 

[lt8480]

A Doggit said, the warmth of the room just enables the air to hold more moisture. The warmth does not remove the moisture and it will still be in the house. As the warmer air mixes with the cooler air from elsewhere the humidity of the whole house will increase which will increase the risk of condensation elsewhere in the cooler rooms. Extraction removes the moisture.

Hood extractors also extract oils which will help keep a kitchen cleaner and reduce smells. Some people don't mind this but not having one will require more cleaning in the Kitchen.

Extraction does work, but people have a tendency to have poor experience of it. The number of cheap units with long insufficiently sized runs with multiple bends etc. or simply 10 year old poorly maintained fan units full of dirt.

 

[noseall]

I just don't want to fit something that I know we'll never use

Perhaps the next people to own your house would like to remove the (potentially) harmful moisture generated when they do lots of cooking.

 

[JulianP]

Perhaps the next people to own your house would like to remove the (potentially) harmful moisture generated when they do lots of cooking.

They could open a window perhaps?

Julian

 

[^woody^]

This is a bit like the "I dont need a seatbelt because I wont ever have a crash" argument.

Believe it or not, moisture in buildings and adequate ventilation is a public health issue and a structural issue for your protection and wellbeing.

A mechanical fan, or a passive ventilation system is required. Those are the rules and have been for years. I'm surprised whoever designed this conversion did not know that.

 

[noseall]

They could open a window perhaps?

Perhaps.
Or, if they are UK residents they may expect to see an extractor in a modern kitchen and will expect to use it. They are quite common and have been mandatory since the last century.

I had a grumble when we moved into our house only to find a firemans pole where the stairs should have been. The previous owner (Sam) loved it. Not for us though.

 

[JulianP]

It's a funny old world. Me and the misses open the bedroom window to the first notch every night.

Perhaps.
Or, if they are UK residents they may expect to see an extractor in a modern kitchen and will expect to use it.

The kitchen has been built with exposed green oak trusses holding the roof up, solid wood window frames and oak doors, an Aga cooker, cast iron radiators, stained glass window, and stand alone traditional kitchen units. It is anything but a ''modern kitchen.'' I doubt any potential buyer will be glad to see some horrible plastic rectangle on the wall that makes a nasty whine.

 

[noseall]

It's a funny old world. Me and the misses open the bedroom window to the first notch every night

And us. However, we don't boil spuds in our bedroom. Do you?

It is anything but a ''modern kitchen.''

'Modern' as in recently built or of the present day. You meant to say anything but a 'contemporary' styled kitchen.

I doubt any potential buyer will be glad to see some horrible plastic rectangle on the wall that makes a nasty whine.

Use your imagination regards the vent grille (reclaim) and try not to let the noise of boiling spuds or sizzling steaks drown out the rhythmic purr of the fan.​

 

[JohnD]

He clearly doesn't want an extractor and is just wasting his time and ours with a question to which he already has a preferred answer.