How Is Ventilation Engineered for a High-Country Restaurant?

The engineer starts at the cooking line: every appliance's duty, the hood type and size the code requires over it, and the exhaust rate that combination demands. The makeup air unit is then sized to replace nearly all of that exhaust — the small remainder comes from the dining room transfer air, which is exactly what keeps the kitchen negative to the dining room. The engineer heats the makeup air to a tempered setpoint, evaluates heat recovery on the exhaust stream where grease filtration allows it, and sequences the demand-controlled ventilation so the whole system tracks the cooking load. Fan selection uses altitude-corrected performance, and the engineer confirms the specified fans actually deliver the design airflow at the site elevation. Pressure relationships are commissioned, not assumed. The engineer writes the balance targets into the specifications — kitchen negative to dining, dining positive to outdoors, restrooms exhaust-only — and requires the testing and balancing contractor to demonstrate them with the kitchen at full exhaust and the dining room at normal operation. The entry vestibule gets its own heater and the dining system's positive pressure is checked with the entry doors cycling, because the host stand lives or dies by that first impression of warm air.

Use this checklist before the permit set is developed: • Hood exhaust sized for the actual cooking equipment with fan performance corrected for altitude • Demand-controlled kitchen ventilation evaluated against the operating schedule • Makeup air tempered and introduced near the kitchen; heat recovery evaluated on the exhaust stream • Pressure relationships specified and commissioned: kitchen negative, dining positive, restrooms exhaust-only • Grease duct routed short and straight with code clearances, cleanouts at every turn, and cold-climate drainage • Supply diffusers kept clear of the hood capture zone; capture verified in the design • Dining HVAC zoned separately, sized for full seating, with draft-free air distribution • Entry vestibule heated; patio heaters and patio-door infiltration in the load calculation • Jurisdiction confirmed: town health and building review vs county permit; grease interceptor sizing with the local authority