Performance Testing of Air Curtains in Residential Range Hoods

Air curtain assisted range hoods are very customary in large industrial kitchens. They allow to increase the capture efficiency of the range hood while lowering the net exhaust flow rate. For applications in residential settings, there is a lack of data on the performance of air curtain assisted range hoods, as well as a lack of information on the required settings and boundary conditions to come to the successful application of air curtain assisted range hoods. In this paper we present the results from an experimental test campaign in which we investigated the capture efficiency of a residential air curtain assisted range hood in comparison with a regular range hood, as well as the sensitivity of the capture efficiency to boundary conditions such as net exhaust flow rate, height above the range, enclosure etc. The results show that air curtain assisted range hoods are more efficient at lower flow rates, especially in non-enclosed settings, confirming the performance known from industrial kitchens, but are sensitive to higher mounting and on-going cooking activities.