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I'm curious what improvement, if any, is seen from using the fan on the range hood while using the gas stove/oven. Since I heard about this issue, I've been usi

I'm curious what improvement, if any, is seen from using the fan on the range hood while using the gas stove/oven. Since I heard about this issue, I've been using it every time I use the stove or oven, and it does make a different to the subjective gas smell around the house, but I don't know if it impacts actual NO2 levels.

andrewberls 5y ago
I agree, a discussion of ventilation seems like a critical omission from the article. Do vent hoods help, and to what degree? Is installing more effective / higher CFM hoods a productive avenue to explore, vs replacing the whole stove? What about the impact of air purifiers? Or opening a window? I hope these things are covered in part three.
xenadu02 5y ago
Besides improving air quality you should use the vent hood anyway otherwise your kitchen will get a nice coating of grease on everything over the years. This applies to the oven too, not just the stovetop. I wish residential vent hoods came with interconnects like commercial kitchens so they would come on automatically whenever cooking.
- leoedin 5y ago
  AEG make stoves and hoods that have some sort of wireless communication so they come on automatically. Expensive though.
c_o_n_v_e_x 5y ago
Assuming it is not a recirculating hood and it’s venting outside, it should help reduce NOx levels. When you’re venting to the outside, you’re creating a negative pressure inside the home which is drawing in fresh air, which in theory will dilute the concentration. Some systems have “make-up air” which blows in fresh air, roughly equal to what is being vented out.
- jacobolus 5y ago
  While we are discussing vent hoods, one thing people doing kitchen remodels (or new houses, etc.) may want to look into is putting the vent fan inline in the duct (e.g. in the attic) instead of in the hood itself. With a silencer (cuts about 20 decibels) between the hood and the fan, kitchen ventilation hoods can be made dramatically quieter than the typical extremely noisy version. The fan noise more or less goes away and the remaining noise comes from the air flowing through the grease filter / into the duct. Adding the make-up air system increases the cost by 50% or something (needs a similarly powerful fan and similarly sized duct for air coming in vs. going out), but any powerful vent hood should probably include one (and building codes demand them in many places, though I think this is often overlooked in practice).
  - c_o_n_v_e_x 5y ago
    Story from a previous life when I was an HVAC tech in college… got a call out to a new restaurant where the owner was complaining that the place was not cooling. After doing the routine checks, the AC was fine. Upon further investigation, there was no make up air. The owner decided to delete the MUA out of the design to save money (didn’t listen to his MEP designer). Not only was the kitchen vent hood exhausting kitchen air but conditioned restaurant air as well. It was permitted city construction, I have no clue how the place passed inspection.
rsanheim 5y ago
This thread (https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/1482013311034142722 https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/14820133110341427...) is from a different author on the same subject, but basically, the range hood had no effect on NO2 levels. It helped a lot with PM2.5 levels, but not at all with NO2. From the linked study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909253/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909253/): > Ventilation hood installation did not significantly reduce indoor NO2 concentrations in our study, and there was a trend toward higher NO2 concentrations in follow-up visits, although not statistically significant. The reason for the lack of efficacy of ventilation hoods is uncertain. The research explains that the lack of effectiveness of hoods could be due to many factors (improper installation, lack of use), but at least at first glance it seems that a hood doesn't help with NO2. As someone who has always preferred a gas stove over electric, this doesn't really align with what I want to believe =). But I also realize there are many times I preheat the oven and cook a frozen lasagna for 50 mins or boil water on the stove without turning on my range hood, so I definitely understand at least one reason that a gas stove with a range hood may not help in terms of reducing NO2 levels in my house. I tend to use the range hood if I'm cooking something really smelly or messy (ie frying), but don't think of it if I'm just baking something in the gas oven for a long period of time. I know for my part I'm going to be buying an induction cook top for things like boiling water or frying foods where I really don't need gas. I have kids and don't really wanna add to risk of air pollutant exposure.
- throwawaysea 5y ago
  I happen to have a kitchen with both induction and gas tops, and to be honest I avoid using the induction ones almost entirely except for boiling water. It’s simply not the same experience cooking on induction compared to having an actual flame. I feel better as a cook with a gas stove but I also just enjoy it more. > The research explains that the lack of effectiveness of hoods could be due to many factors (improper installation, lack of use), but at least at first glance it seems that a hood doesn't help with NO2. I don’t know if you can claim a hood doesn’t help. As you noted, the study admits they don’t know if hoods were even turned on by the residents. It simply doesn’t make sense that hoods venting to the outside would have no effect, and so I have to imagine this is a lack of appropriate controls over the experiment here.
zejn 5y ago
I can confirm turning on the fan helps with PM2.5/PM10 significantly. Don't know about NO2 or VOC.

andrewberls 5y ago

I agree, a discussion of ventilation seems like a critical omission from the article. Do vent hoods help, and to what degree? Is installing more effective / higher CFM hoods a productive avenue to explore, vs replacing the whole stove? What about the impact of air purifiers? Or opening a window? I hope these things are covered in part three.

xenadu02 5y ago

Besides improving air quality you should use the vent hood anyway otherwise your kitchen will get a nice coating of grease on everything over the years. This applies to the oven too, not just the stovetop. I wish residential vent hoods came with interconnects like commercial kitchens so they would come on automatically whenever cooking.

leoedin 5y ago
AEG make stoves and hoods that have some sort of wireless communication so they come on automatically. Expensive though.

c_o_n_v_e_x 5y ago

Assuming it is not a recirculating hood and it’s venting outside, it should help reduce NOx levels. When you’re venting to the outside, you’re creating a negative pressure inside the home which is drawing in fresh air, which in theory will dilute the concentration. Some systems have “make-up air” which blows in fresh air, roughly equal to what is being vented out.

jacobolus 5y ago
While we are discussing vent hoods, one thing people doing kitchen remodels (or new houses, etc.) may want to look into is putting the vent fan inline in the duct (e.g. in the attic) instead of in the hood itself. With a silencer (cuts about 20 decibels) between the hood and the fan, kitchen ventilation hoods can be made dramatically quieter than the typical extremely noisy version. The fan noise more or less goes away and the remaining noise comes from the air flowing through the grease filter / into the duct. Adding the make-up air system increases the cost by 50% or something (needs a similarly powerful fan and similarly sized duct for air coming in vs. going out), but any powerful vent hood should probably include one (and building codes demand them in many places, though I think this is often overlooked in practice).
- c_o_n_v_e_x 5y ago
  Story from a previous life when I was an HVAC tech in college… got a call out to a new restaurant where the owner was complaining that the place was not cooling. After doing the routine checks, the AC was fine. Upon further investigation, there was no make up air. The owner decided to delete the MUA out of the design to save money (didn’t listen to his MEP designer). Not only was the kitchen vent hood exhausting kitchen air but conditioned restaurant air as well. It was permitted city construction, I have no clue how the place passed inspection.

rsanheim 5y ago

This thread (https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/1482013311034142722 https://twitter.com/curious_founder/status/14820133110341427...) is from a different author on the same subject, but basically, the range hood had no effect on NO2 levels. It helped a lot with PM2.5 levels, but not at all with NO2. From the linked study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909253/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4909253/): > Ventilation hood installation did not significantly reduce indoor NO2 concentrations in our study, and there was a trend toward higher NO2 concentrations in follow-up visits, although not statistically significant. The reason for the lack of efficacy of ventilation hoods is uncertain. The research explains that the lack of effectiveness of hoods could be due to many factors (improper installation, lack of use), but at least at first glance it seems that a hood doesn't help with NO2. As someone who has always preferred a gas stove over electric, this doesn't really align with what I want to believe =). But I also realize there are many times I preheat the oven and cook a frozen lasagna for 50 mins or boil water on the stove without turning on my range hood, so I definitely understand at least one reason that a gas stove with a range hood may not help in terms of reducing NO2 levels in my house. I tend to use the range hood if I'm cooking something really smelly or messy (ie frying), but don't think of it if I'm just baking something in the gas oven for a long period of time. I know for my part I'm going to be buying an induction cook top for things like boiling water or frying foods where I really don't need gas. I have kids and don't really wanna add to risk of air pollutant exposure.

throwawaysea 5y ago
I happen to have a kitchen with both induction and gas tops, and to be honest I avoid using the induction ones almost entirely except for boiling water. It’s simply not the same experience cooking on induction compared to having an actual flame. I feel better as a cook with a gas stove but I also just enjoy it more. > The research explains that the lack of effectiveness of hoods could be due to many factors (improper installation, lack of use), but at least at first glance it seems that a hood doesn't help with NO2. I don’t know if you can claim a hood doesn’t help. As you noted, the study admits they don’t know if hoods were even turned on by the residents. It simply doesn’t make sense that hoods venting to the outside would have no effect, and so I have to imagine this is a lack of appropriate controls over the experiment here.

zejn 5y ago

I can confirm turning on the fan helps with PM2.5/PM10 significantly. Don't know about NO2 or VOC.