[zaroth]

On balance, capitalism is the most net positive feedback system ever created by humanity.

The incentives here included studying and improving a product’s safety. To the point where they were constructing model test homes to conduct controlled experiments.

Cooking inside is messy. Mostly from the burnt particles of food & grease that fill the air. Installing and using a vent helps.

The vent above my gas stove is powerful enough there’s a relay which opens a baffle to let in outside air into the HVAC return air ducts, which automatically activates when I turn on the vent, to ensure negative pressure isn’t potentially backdrafting a chimney. This was required by the State building codes for installing gas stoves, which were developed based on AGA research.

[hellisothers]

Tell me more about your vent system, we’re remodeling the kitchen and the main improvement we’re excited about is the biggest hood/vent we can jam in here to deal with the smoke from all the amazing cooking. Two concerns are chimney backdraft and choking the airflow because of no inlet.

[zaroth]

It’s call “make-up air”.

Usually installed in the return air duct if you have a furnace, they put in a ~6” duct running from the air return to the outside world, with an electric baffle.

Two wires (like thermostat control wire) are run from vent to the baffle. All the big vents have a place where you can plug in to sense when the vent is turned on. Fancier models will have slower speeds that don’t trigger the baffle to open, and only open it at higher speeds.

I got a really powerful range hood. It has 3 speeds but I wish it had a fourth even slower/quieter one because even on minimum it’s pretty loud. So for example if I’m baking in the gas oven, I’d love to have a lower setting that could just ventilate a little without being loud.