Why is it necessary to install makeup air on a kitchen hood
? It is necessary in most kitchens to remove the heat, steam and grease from the ovens and cooking burners. This makes it necessary to also install an exhaust fan ducted from the hood to remove this heat, steam and grease. These exhaust fans usually remove several thousand CFM (cubic feet per minute) of air from the kitchen. If no makeup air was provided, this air removed from the kitchen would be taken from the conditioned air in the room. This means your air conditioner cools the air in the kitchen and then it would be exhausted to the outside. Using makeup air ducted to the kitchen hood saves energy and your money.
What is the most common way to provide this makeup air? Most of the time you will see an Evaporative Cooler or Swamp Cooler as some people call them. They are called this because they actually use water to cool the supply air before it enters the building. If you are using these coolers to supply makeup air there is no need to provide water to the unit. This supply air is not entering the conditioned space in the building, but only providing makeup air for the hood.
Most kitchen hoods need 3000 to 5000 CFM or Cubic Feet per Minute of air to provide this makeup air. There are some very inexpensive Evaporative Coolers that you can purchase to provide this makeup air. Many people use Evaporative Coolers purchased from Grainger to provide this makeup air. Is Grainger the best choice of distributors when buying these coolers? Let me help you with this decision. You are needing a cooler that will supply around 5000 CFM to your kitchen hood. You could purchase this from Grainger, item number 2YAE3, which is the Essick N55/65S. The price on this cooler is $823.00. This same item purchased from an online company like SwampCoolersOnline.com costs less than $700.00. Now lets figure the final totals. Buying this model from Grainger would be $823.00 plus sales tax of about $68.00 for a total of $891.00. Buying the same unit online from out of state, you pay no sales tax. But you pay shipping costs of about $130.00. This brings the online total to $829.00. You pay $62.00 less when you buy the same item online. That is a 7% discount for buying online. These days, if I can buy the same product and put $62.00 in my pocket, I will take it. You should buy Swamp Coolers Online.