Capture efficiency and thermal comfort in Chinese residential kitchen with push-pull ventilation system in winter-a field study.

Abstract The IAQ and thermal comfort in residential kitchen are two major concerns in built environment. The ventilation effectiveness is closely related to the IAQ of the residential kitchen. Therefore, it is necessary to design a cost-effective kitchen ventilation system. In this study, a field experimental study was conducted on a push-pull kitchen ventilation system. The experiment was divided into two parts. The first part was to test the capture efficiency of the push-pull ventilation system under various working conditions. The second part was to investigate the thermal comfort of the human body during cooking process with and without air curtain in winter. The results show that the push-pull ventilation system can effectively improve the capture efficiency of the range hood, and the low-momentum make-up air and the reasonable air distribution around the stove are important to obtain good performance. The optimal working condition of the push-pull ventilation system is a range hood mid gear plus an air curtain velocity of 0.5 m/s when the kitchen window is closed. In winter, when people enter the non-air-conditioned kitchen from the air-conditioned room, the thermal sensation and thermal comfort of people were all decreased significantly. However, they can be improved during cooking processes. The prediction results show that models which used skin temperature as input parameter can predict the thermal sensation of most parts of human body in kitchen. However, the prediction correction model is still needed for the body parts with movement or exposure to severe heat radiation. Highlights • Air curtain with optimal velocity can improve capture efficiency of range hood. • In winter, cooking process can improve thermal comfort of human body. • Air curtain has no significant effect on thermal comfort of human body in winter. • Different thermal sensation models were compared for kitchen environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]