Home ventilation: how to automate a cooker hood

Recommendation points

• Working with a cooker hood: design changes
• Duct preparation
• Exhaust fan
• Assembling the electrical circuit
• Temperature controller programming

What is your cooker hood capable of and how can you make using this technique really convenient? In this article we will show you how to upgrade your hood. Spending a little money and personal time, you can automate the operation of equipment, making it efficient and completely silent.

A cooker hood is indispensable in any kitchen, but sometimes the device is trite forgotten to turn on or turn on on time. Typical problems also include high noise levels when the hood is running, while low-noise technology is limited in engine power. But you can easily upgrade it by increasing the power, completely removing the noise and making the work fully automated..

Important: hoods that recirculate indoor air with cleaning through a carbon filter can only be automated.

To work you need the following tools:

1. Screwdriwer set.
2. Screwdriver.
3. Drill set from 2 to 10 mm.
4. Round file.
5. Pliers and wire cutters.
6. Silicone sealant.

Working with a cooker hood: design changes

The hood must be removed from the mountings, disconnected from the air duct, grease filters and then the carbon filters must be removed. Remove the hood motor from the mounting location, usually it is bolted to the body or bracket with several screws. If the fastening is done with rivets, they must be drilled out. Remember to also disconnect the power wires, then the motor can be removed and put aside for a while.

Determine if the range hood has an on indicator light. If there is a lamp, cut the wires, leaving the ends 10-15 centimeters. If the indicator light is not installed, drill a hole in a suitable place in the metal housing and install the indicator light with 230V AC power supply. Light indicators such as IEK AD16DS or similar are well suited.

Also, on the bottom wall of the hood, you need to drill a hole and fix some decorative metal cap (for example, from screwed-in furniture hinges) with thin walls in it. The inner diameter of the cap must be at least 4 mm, a temperature sensor will be installed inside it.

On the back wall of the hood or on the motor mounting bracket, fix the housing for four circuit breakers with IP54 protection and a 35 mm metal DIN rail. In one of the walls of the shield, you need to drill 5 holes with a diameter of 5-6 mm for tight entry of wires.

Duct preparation

The best solution would be to use an aluminum corrugated hose with a diameter of 110 or 125 mm as an air duct. Plumbing clamps must be installed at the joints of the hose with the exhaust pipe, fan and all couplings. Also, it will not be superfluous to seal each connection with liquid silicone so that the air duct is completely sealed..

The same requirement applies to the hood body. The only air passage should be only in the main channel, all other slots and gaps should be tightly sealed. Sometimes the features of the installation do not allow the use of large-diameter air ducts or a circular sleeve. If a rigid rectangular ventilation duct is used, it will also need to be modified for absolute tightness and ventilation reducers of the required shapes and sizes must be purchased.

The end point of the duct is the chimney to the outside. If it is not there, then it can be made from a sewer PET pipe by installing a cut-off fungus on top. An important point in choosing the channel cross-section: it should not be less than the passage of the exhaust outlet.

Exhaust fan

If the power of the “native” engine is sufficient, you can use it, having previously modified it. Typically, motors in cooker hoods have two inlets on which charcoal filters are attached. The shape and size of these channels often correspond to the sizes of accessories for ventilation systems, so it is not so difficult to pick up several reducers, turns and a tee to connect two channels into one. On the other hand, you can simply plug one of the inlets, but this can negatively affect performance, especially if a double-sided centrifugal fan is installed in the hood..

Standard axial duct fans for ventilation systems can be used if the performance of a standard motor is not enough or there is no desire to rework. Recommended fan capacity not less than 1000 m³/ h, which is equivalent to a motor power of 150-200 watts. Axial fans with a diameter of 110 mm connecting pipes are considered small-sized and it is rather difficult to find such a unit with the required power. It is possible to turn two fans into parallel operation, this will double the performance, but it is better to purchase a larger fan and connect it to the air duct through several gearboxes. For example, by choosing the Vents exhaust fan VKOM-315 or its analogue Vokker 110W D307, having installed two pairs of plastic reducers 160×315 and 110×160 mm on both sides, you will get really amazing power for your advanced hood. In this case, the hood can even be raised above the stove higher, if necessary..

The fan will turn out to be rather large: diameter 32 cm and length about a meter. If you live in a private house, it is better to install it in the attic. If there is no attic, fix it vertically to the outer wall of the building, but consult the seller about the climatic version of the device. The wire for the motor power can be laid inside the channel by sealing the entry point with a sealant.

Assembling the electrical circuit

The center of the electrical circuit is the digital boiler automation controller “Rubezh” TR-16.01. It needs to be installed on a DIN rail along with a 6 amp bipolar circuit breaker. The hood power cable must be stripped and connected to the upper poles of the machine.

The thermostat has a group of terminal blocks: device power supply, temperature sensor connection contacts and a relay output. Power is supplied to the device from the lower poles of the machine; from one of them, you must also throw a jumper to the central contact of the relay output. A standard exhaust switch can be connected in parallel with the normally open relay contact to which one of the motor power leads is connected. This is done in order to be able to turn on the hood forcibly. The second wire of the fan must be connected to the pole of the machine opposite to where the jumper on the relay is connected. The indicator light is connected in parallel with the motor load.

The thermal sensor has a heat-shrinkable tube sheath, which must be cut and removed very carefully. The metal cap fixed in the body must be filled with KTP-8 paste, then immerse the bare sensor in it and let it freeze for several hours.

Temperature controller programming

The instructions for TR-16.01 contain comprehensive information on setting up, programming and connecting.

Empirically, it has been found that with a slow fire of a gas stove, the temperature under the hood rises to 45-50 ° C in about 40 seconds. This is almost twice as fast as that of an electric stove. The sensor will register a rise in temperature with a slight delay, while the metal sheath warms up, it takes 20-25 seconds. This means that the hood will turn on no later than 1.5-2 minutes after turning on the hob.

The thermostat has three operating modes. Select “cooling” by holding the “B” button for 3 seconds, selecting the “-_-” icon and fixing the selection by pressing “B” once. To set the threshold temperature, hold down one of the arrow buttons for 2 seconds, then set the desired value and fix it by pressing “B”. Also set the hysteresis value by holding “B” for 5 seconds, selecting the value and pressing “B” to fix. The thermostat is ready for operation.

What values ​​should I set? Let’s say you want to set the hood to operate at 45 ° C and shutdown when cooled down to 30 ° C. In this case, the threshold temperature is selected at 37.5 ° C, and the hysteresis is set equal to 7.5 ° C.

Name	Price	Qty	The cost
Axial fan “Vents” VKOM-315	4 200 rubles.	1	4 200 rubles.
Reducer galvanized 100×250 Vent-Style	280 rbl.	2	560 rbl.
Reducer galvanized 250×315 Vent-Style	420 rbl.	2	840 rbl.
Flexible duct D100 10 meters	750 rbl.	1	750 rbl
Coupling D100	160 rbl.	1	160 rbl.
Silicone sealant	120 rbl.	2	240 rbl.
Clamp plumbing	RUB 65.	8	520 rbl.
Thermoregulator “Rubezh” TR-16.01	800 rbl.	1	800 rbl.
Automatic circuit breaker IEK VA 47-29	160 rbl.	1	160 rbl.
Light signal lamp “Asko” NXD-211	75 rbl.	1	75 rbl.
Modular case for 4 machines IP54	200 rbl.	1	200 rbl.
Total:			8505 rbl.