My house is made of stone and was built before the times of modern kitchens and ovens/stoves. I would like to put an exhaust hood/fan in when I replace my stove, but it will be almost impossible to vent this hood to the outside given the thickness of the walls in my house. On top of that a vent would not look "right" on the outside of the house. Is there a viable alternative to venting an oven/stove hood outdoors?
Rob NE PA
Well, sure, there are plenty of recirculating hoods that suck the air above the cooktop through a grease trap and maybe an activated charcol filter and then exhaust the air back into the room.
But, they do nothing to remove humidity, and are only marginally effective at removing grease, smoke and odor. Better than nothing perhaps, but nowhere near as effective as a real vent. If you do a lot of cooking a real vent is very desirable.
Can you get up through the roof? If so, you can use a roof mounted ventilator with the bonus that they are much quieter than a hood mounted blower.
If the roof is not an option, would it be any easier to get to the outside from below, through the basement or crawlspace? Then you could use a downdraft cooktop or stove where the vent runs down first, then across to an outside wall and out. If the walls are stone all the way down to the foundation, are there any basement or crawlspace windows? You could replace half the window with a solid panel and run the vent through there.
Keep in mind that long runs are a problem for hood mounted blowers, but inline blowers are available that can handle much longer vent runs.
HTH,
Paul
snipped-for-privacy@removethis.hotmail.com
Thanks for the response. Not sure what the "sure" comment was about though. My only option from the choices you gave would be to go down into the basement and out one of the basement windows. Going up is not an option since the house is two stories with a full attic...
Go through the roof. I have done several penetrations of existing roofs and have had no leaks. I also put a skylight into a re-roof and that was no problem.
I just meant, "sure there are some options..."
Having to go up 20-25 feet to the roof is not a problem in terms of operation; with the proper in-line or roof mounted ventilator it would work just fine. Installation could be a lot more hassle though depending on what's above the hood location. You are probably talking
6" round or nom. 3x10 retangular duct that would have to be run up.Take a look at downdraft cooktops or ranges and think about running it down and out. Disadvantages are that the cooktop is more expensive, and the counter level vent is not as effective as a hood (but still probably better than a recirculating hood.)
All else fails, get the best recirculating hood you can afford.
Paul
I had one for 25 years and found it to be a LOT better than nothing. Pat
crawlspace
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