Keeping your commercial kitchen cool during summer and beyond
As the saying goes, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen”; however, heat is a serious problem for many establishments. If you can’t keep it under control, it could put you out of business.
In older city centres, many cafes and restaurants are back to back with other buildings, which can make ventilating the kitchen a real challenge. Aside from the welfare of your staff, excess heat can impact on refrigerators and create food hygiene issues. If you do not deal with the heat in the kitchen, it will find its way into the dining area – potentially driving away your customers.
HVAC solutions
An integrated heating and air conditioning system is the best solution and something to design into your restaurant at the outset whenever possible. Modern smart controllers can do better than switch reactively, triggered by simple thermostats; instead, they can switch in anticipation of heating or cooling demands before they arise. There are even plans to integrate them wirelessly with weather forecasts.
They can also be highly fuel efficient, pumping heat from hot areas to cold ones and vice versa or using excess heat to power the cooling using condensers.
Glass door refrigeration
Even if it gets a little over-warm, glass fronted units will present your clientele with a variety of cooling solutions. Both fridges and freezers come in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit your available spaces and are available from suppliers such as https://www.fridgefreezerdirect.co.uk/glass-door-refrigeration. Reliability is highly important for commercial premises and the units must be designed to maintain their temperature regardless of the fluctuating temperatures in your kitchen or dining areas.
Insect screens
The National Restaurant Association says: “Pests act as paintbrushes. They can ‘paint’ bacteria on food surfaces.” It is recommended that 16 mesh per square inch screening is used to keep insects out of kitchens and food storage areas. Screens on windows and rear doors mean that you can keep them open for fresh air without letting in a potentially hazardous source of contamination. If you ensure the mesh doors and windows are a perfect fit, they will also protect you from heat-loving pests such as cockroaches.
Air doors
These electronic devices can activate automatically when kitchen doors open, blowing a steady flow of air outwards that forms a shield against insects flying in.
