The Tortilla, The Kitchen Fan and The Energy Auditor
So I was getting ready for my morning bike ride to the coast and decided I needed some calories. Part of my choice was some tortillas. I place them in the toaster oven and went about my morning. This included drinking my morning coffee and checking my email.
Mmm what is that smell? I inadvertently put the tortillas in the forge of Vulcan. I set the timer to a mere twenty minutes instead of the normal one. As I got up I could see the smoke swirling giving me a first look at slow moving convection loops. How cool is that I thought. Probably not as uncool as filling the house with tortilla smoke. I turned the oven off and took the formely known as tortillas outside to smolder.
Well now lets see how good my kitchen hood fan performs I thought. I turned on the fan and monitored the escape of smoke. I was curious to see how it performed. This was like a spillage test during CAZ I did not have a lot of time. The girls were all asleep and I did not want them to start choking. They'll be fine I thought, on with the testing
Phase I fan only
I turned my kitchen fan on.
Not much effect at all the kitchen is clearing but the test of the home seems unaffected. I can see the living room and the smoke seems to be stagnant. I expected this would be the case
Phase II fan on far window open
I can feel the air rushing through the window but the smoke is getting out very slowly. I thought this would help and it did but not enough. The fan needed the draw of fresh air for efficiency and general operation but the result was slow and ineffective
Phase III
Open window closest to fan
My hope was to create more movement and exhaust more smoke The dog is up now looking at me like I am an idiot. I am but he doesn’t have to look at me that way. Still not much in the way of movement of smoke.
Phase IV
Open all windows
This is started by the dog , that apparently needs to pee or simply does not want to be in a room filled with smoke or a combination of the two. Immediate results I can see smoke pour out of the leeward side. I knew this would work from past experience of burning things inside (see Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity)
In conclusion first and foremost do not burn tortillas inside your home. This leaves a lingering and unpleasant odor in the home and your dog looks at you like you’re an idiot. In addition the tortillas are ruined and unfit for consumption. When the wife and kids wake up they will not only look at you like you’re an idiot(see the dog) but verbally communicate that you’re an idiot….several times
Furthermore mechanical systems such as our kitchen fan are often specific use. Had I burned something on the stove and had the fan running it would perform quite well. The free air such as an open window would have been beneficial in assisting the fan.
Our systems in our homes work well when operating correctly for what they are designed for. Make sure each time you use the stove to turn on your hood fan.