What ventilation for an open plan Kitchen/Livingroom?

[MattsFlat]

Hi there,

I've just had some building work done in our flat which involving making a kitchen/living room area open plan. I've installed most of the kitchen now and am just about to put in the hood. Ducting is going to be really hard/impossible as it's a fair way from the outside wall and there's three bends in it! So:

The room has a reasonably large french window and a smaller window that opens too. It is approximately 4m by 5m in size, with a height of 2m 30cm.

I seem to be getting mixed messages about whether I need extraction to outside because of the cooking fumes? Can I just open a window, and have a recirculating hood, or do I have to either duct or install an extractor in the window frame?

Many thanks in advance for the help!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=1311860#1311860

 

[Richard C]

There has been a new version of Part F (Oct 2010) since that thread in FMT’s link was posted;
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADF_2010.pdf

Your situation is also different in that your open plan kitchen is a part of new Building Works which I’m pretty sure would require forced extraction whereas the posted example is merely a replacement kitchen which does not; there are also other confusing issues now about passive stack ventilation being an alternative which I don’t believe it will be in most cases. The only way you’re going to be sure is to talk to LABC, especially if inspection of building work is involved.

I would advise you to fit the biggest extractor you can, recirculating fans are next to useless. Open plan kitchen/living areas are all the rage now but, personally, I would never knock walls down to achieve one. My daughter lived in a brand new, upmarket open plan maisonette up to a couple of years ago. It had an externally vented extractor hood but the heat & smell in the living area were close to unbearable in summer & in winter you got severe condensation as well & if you opened windows you freeze to death. The whole place also stank of your last meal for hours on end & even next day; fashionable or not I’d never have open plan in a million years.

 

[MattsFlat]

Thanks for the fast replies folks.

Richard, I'm afraid it's too late! The wall is down. I completely understand what you're saying about smells and so on, but if you saw the old kitchen and the odd layout of the flat from the original conversion...

So, luckily, it has made a huge improvement. Much more light and space now - only the smells to worry about.

I've just spoken to the Building Control Surveyor for the area and I'm putting in a 230m3/hr window fan from Screwfix, which apparently will do the job. It is a shame because it will affect the natural light coming into the room, but there isn't any obvious space to insert a fan into the exterior wall. Also, having chatted it over with him, I've come to realise the room does need some forced extraction as well as the doors and windows to deal with water vapour/steam and so on.

Let's hope the charcoal filters manage to deal with at least some of the other issues!