Kitchen exhaust hoods are typically provided over cooking areas to help remove airborne grease, combustion products, fumes, smoke, odors, heat, and steam from the area above the cooking area. A fan in the exhaust hood draws the air away from the cooking area and into the exhaust hood. The air is then drawn through a filter within the hood to remove airborne grease and particulate from the air. Finally, the air can be released to an outside atmosphere.
After prolonged use, the filter of the exhaust hood tends to begin to clog with the material being filtered out of the air drawn into the hood. As the filter continues to clog, the ability of the hood to draw air away from the cooking area and into the hood is diminished. Additionally, the risk of fire increases as the filter becomes progressively more clogged. As a result, the filter needs to be periodically removed from the exhaust hood and either cleaned or replaced.
Unfortunately, it can often be difficult to determine when a filter is clogged. Visual inspection for dogging is difficult because the filter is usually located within the hood and is difficult to view without, for example, removing pieces of the exhaust hood. Similarly, detecting filter clogging by visually monitoring the air above the cooking area can be unreliable and inconclusive.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a way to monitor filter clogging that does not require direct visual inspection. It would also be beneficial to provide a way to automatically alert a user to filter clogging.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds