Exhaust Your Options for Energy Savings: Demand Ventilation Controls

by Kimberly DiCello, Account Manager II

Energy expenses for restaurants are steep, especially considering that restaurants use about 5 to 7 times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings. Restaurant owners and operators struggle to find ways to cut costs without sacrificing important things that drive their business, like quality food, 24 hour operations, an attractive ambiance, and comfortable temperatures in the heat of summer and the dead of winter. Once an owner has done their lighting, hot water, food service equipment, refrigeration, and cooling/heating system upgrades, what more is left?

There’s one vampire in the kitchen that often goes unnoticed. It’s the kitchen exhaust hood secretly sucking up energy throughout the day. It’s strange that something so large and loud could slide under the radar, but that’s mostly because it’s a kitchen necessity and up until recently, there weren’t many viable options for increasing its efficiency. Today there are retrofit and new construction options for installing Demand Ventilation Controls that adjust hood vent speeds based on need. The energy savings and benefits vary greatly based on a variety of factors including the diversity of the cook line, the size of the hood, the restaurant layout, and hours of operations. The expense of the system isn’t justified in all scenarios, but for many locations, it’s a worthwhile investment that generates impressive savings. In addition, the technology is often utility approved and customers can get rebates for retrofits or new construction. In fact, here in the SDG&E territory, rebates are $350/horsepower for a retrofit and $300/horsepower for a new hood.