5 Kitchen Ideas to Ensure Optimum Ventilation

The kitchen is the soul of any home. It is the place where we plan and cook nutritious and delicious meals. Cooking, dining, and cleaning up are family activities that should promote bonding and joy. However, a small, poorly ventilated kitchen can make cooking a bothersome chore and promote poor respiratory health in the family.

Here are some kitchen design ideas to help open your cookhouse to great ventilation and keep this wonderful space free of smoke and odours.

1. Optimise the design – A gallery kitchen or a parallel kitchen is the popular design choice in most modern apartments and flats. This is often due to the paucity of space. Even in roomier, more luxurious homes, the third wall is not used to optimise kitchen ventilation. This means most modular kitchens place a large refrigerating unit or an oven across the window space to enhance functionality. Working to enhance the open space or window that brings in the outside air is a wonderful idea for your kitchen. It reduces the smoke and odour issues that often assail most kitchens.
2. Layout solutions – Open kitchens have been gaining a lot of traction off-late, especially in modern flats and apartments, particularly studio apartments. These offer a more open, free-flowing layout and are great for ventilation and air circulation. If you invest in an under-construction flat, you may be able to discuss layout changes and kitchen design ideas with the developer. Kitchens with counter-style openings or half walls separating the dining area are also great for keeping the air circulation going.
3. Adding a range hood – A range hood, more commonly known as an electric chimney, is your best bet for keeping the kitchen area well-ventilated and free of smoke and particulate matter. Even in flats that do not have a built-in HVAC system or ventilation options, an electric chimney can be easily installed and connected to the exhaust vent. Before buying this popular kitchen device, though, it may be worth calculating the total heat output of the stove and the kitchen area and investing in a chimney that meets these requirements. After installation, periodic maintenance will help keep your kitchen well-ventilated.
4. Exhaust for the win – Most old residential apartments made do with small air vents high up in the ceiling, but these are not nearly enough to cater to the ventilation needs of most Indian households. Vents leave space for rising fumes and smoke to escape but do not actively remove them. Besides, they come with associated challenges, such as soot deposits. An exhaust fan is a simple solution that can be installed in most homes. An exhaust system is more expensive but is a great help in removing fumes, smoke, and odours.
5. Help with HEPA - Most homeowners have one major concern: modern-day flats and apartments do not make ventilation and odour removal easy. Despite putting the above solutions to their best use, smoke, strong food odours, and fumes remain a real challenge in the kitchen. In these cases, an air purifier with a HEPA filter is a trusted friend. If you are considering investing in an air purifier for the kitchen, it is best to look for one with adsorption technology and activated charcoal filters. These remove odours, tiny grease droplets, smoke, and fumes from the kitchen.

Final Thoughts

If you are opting for a modular kitchen, it may be well worth spending time understanding the exhaust, ventilation, and air purification options that the designer offers in terms of kitchen design ideas before finalising your unit.