CFM

This evening we learned about CFM, Cubic Feet per Minute. Our new kitchen vent pulls 900 CFM. Those are commercial kitchen numbers. Our appliance guy told us that we may be required to augment our HVAC in order to pass inspection. Like, this thing needs outside air. I raised my eyebrow and said, “40-year old house.” Wellington replied, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

The city building inspector asked, during final inspection, what the CFM was. I told him the truth. He raised his eyebrow and asked what sort of air handling measures we’d taken to compensate. I replied, “40-year old house.” His well observed retort was, “In which you have replaced most of the windows.” I said, “Touché, Sir, touché.” He grinned and asked me to demonstrate the vent. All the guys love this vent. After the demo he asked, “Didn’t you say this was 400 CFM?” I could only say, “Yes sir, absolutely!”

Up until this evening the only thing I could imagine that those who write code must think is that the vent will remove all the oxygen from the upper floor of the house 🙄. We are cooking a corned beef for St. Patrick’s day. I’ve had the vent on because simmering something for 3-4 hours without a vent isn’t a good thing… Then my DH started a fire in the woodstove, and we very quickly figured out what high CFM does to the smoke in your firebox. Sucks it into your house! My DH was quick in asking me to turn off the vent. All is well, but there could be a little more condensation from making dinner than we’d like 🤣.