Hi, I am looking for advice for two large vents into our kitchen. The cold air coming in makes the room cold especially at floor level. The vents are the size of two bricks each. I have tried putting plastic cowls over them but it doesn’t help. Also the kitchen has a gas hob and an extractor hood that vents to the outside.
I have photos of the vents outside and a thermal image.
To paraphrase gas regulations:
“1. If gas is burnt in a room you need so much external ventilation that you cannot feel the benefits.
2. It must be possible for an inspector to see outside through the ventilation.”
Your cowls are probably having some minimal impact but are contrary to part 2 of the above regulations.
Do you also have a gas oven or any other gas burning appliance in the kitchen? If not my advice is to get an induction hob and brick up the vents. If not already present also fit an extractor or cooker hood with external extract.
Hi, I was thinking about an induction hob, mainly to reduce gas use, improve air quality and reduce co2 emissions.
The cooker itself is electric. We have a gas boiler but I believe we don’t need ventilation for that.
Any idea how easy it is to swap the induction hob in and the cost of doing so? The house has a 40 amp cooker circuit already.
I just have to convince my wife to the change, she prefers gas (I used to as well). The main concern is what if a power cut happens?
Thanks for your reply.
I changed from gas to induction 17 years ago. I still have the same hob, which is extremely outdated now.
There is actually very little difference between cooking on gas or induction. When I first got the induction hob one of my party tricks was to put a little water in a pan and put it on the hob. I would then ask a visitor to place their hand on a ring that I had put on full power. It was cold. I then slid the pan on to the same ring and without touching any controls it was boiling in seconds.
I originally bought induction for its safety.
It will need its own spur but fitting is no problem at all. Check the size of the cutout for your current hob and buy the same size.
Have you made any progress on this? An induction hob is a bit more expensive than gas but the benefits are immediate.
Hello, we haven’t made the change yet due to not agreeing if it is the right thing to do. I am also worried about the risk of black outs over this winter, so I won’t a back up cooking facility. Unless I have a camping stove available.
Also I am unsure about getting a plug in hob vs permanently wired.
Fair enough. Both issues are valid.
If you do ever go for an induction hob I suggest wired in.
Hello again, I have looked at the gas safe regulations. It says that if there is an external door to the kitchen or if it has a volume greater than 10m3, then there is no requirement for a permanent vent. Our kitchen is about 11m3 or higher, it didn’t have an external door, but we have knocked the wall out to the dining room (28m3) and replaced a window with a door in the dining room. I have attached a link to the pdf. What made me think about this,is that our last house had a gas hob but no vents, it was built in 2003.
As building regs have always led to draughty homes (max 10 air changes an hour at 50Pa) I suppose that makes kitchen ventilation unnecessary.
Just think. A house built to recent regs is allowed to have a complete air change every 6 minutes. Imagine trying to heat that house on a blowy day!