OT - ''Effluent''

12 years ago

I don't know who started using the word "effluent" here, or when, but it sure has caught on, hasn't it? I never questioned what was meant, but it recently struck me that I've never heard the term used in the context of kitchen ventilation outside of this site. So I googled it, and 99% - if not 100% - of what I found relates to water discharge of one sort or another. Sewage, farming run-off, cooling water from industry, etc. Perhaps someone will quote a respected source that uses the term in the context of cooking, but I'd still maintain that it's not a common usage.

So, my question of the day: What's the matter with discussing cooking "vapor" like the rest of the world does? Vapor, by definition, neatly includes steam, grease and smoke, which is exactly what we're trying to discharge from our kitchens.

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Comments (16)

Emilner
12 years ago
You say tomato, I say tomato...
thull
12 years ago
Since I actually work in the real effluent business, I find it comical that folks are using the word to describe something kitchen related.

One of my favorite quotes, regarding using reclaimed water (super highly treated wastewater) for artificial snow production in Colorado: "The affluent don't want to ski on the effluent."
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The functions of a ventilation hood system are capture and containment of the rising effluent plume from a cooking surface and (where applicable) combustion products. Easily said but often ideal capture and containment are in conflict with available space, sight lines, tolerable noise, acceptable appearance, and affordable cost. So the OP's question might be rephrased as: How much of each of A - H is enough to achieve the OP's maximum tolerance for odor and grease. Unfortunately, we can't know that tolerance, and hence can't apply it to establishing a balanced system. Another approach is to start from basics. 1) Establish the cook top configuration and the sizes of pans that would be used on the cooktop. 2) Sketch from a side view and a front view the rising effluent plumes from these pans. Assume that the expansion is in the 20 - 25 degree half angle range from the edges of the pans cooking surface or edges if gas fired. Effluent hitting cabinet sides or the back wall is assumed to be directed at the hood. 3) In concert with choosing a hood depth and width that encompasses the effluent, establish a hood height that doesn't block one's view of the pans or provide a (one-time only, one poster noted) skull impact when bending over. Higher generally requires deeper, but also improves the view and safety. Note that in flat bottomed hood configurations (filters flush with the base) only the filter size counts as the hood size. Otherwise, the inside aperture of the hood counts as the hood size. 4) Choose an aesthetically tolerable design. 5) Determine the filter area (square feet) of the hood and multiply by 3 ft/second for effluent rate of rise and by 60 seconds per minute. The result will be the minimum full power air flow (cubic feet per minute) needed at the filters. (This is all approximate). Achieving this may require an exhaust blower rated 1.5X larger due to various pressure losses. 6) Given this flow rate (cfm), divide by 1000 ft/min, and also divide the cfm by 2000 ft/min. This is the duct cross-section area min-max range to strive for to keep unfiltered grease particulates from condensing on the duct. As always, a given duct diameter relates to duct cross section by A = (pi*D^2)/4. where the diameter D has to be in feet. (Those who are metrically oriented can make the appropriate transformations.) (There are many rules of thumb for required flow rate, but they often presume certain hood characteristics, such as conventional commercial design. The Wolf design guide has suggested fans to use with their hoods based on their estimate of what is adequate.) Second order effects may come into play as one decides whether the result of the above is affordable or installable. For example, over specifying the fan may allow the hood to appear slightly larger, improving capture. Or a conscious decision to cook the greasiest most odoriferous food only under the center of the hood might be made to reduce effluent escape from a hood that is otherwise too small. kas
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mojavean
12 years ago
I think the first time I heard the term was from our friendly engineer, Kaseki. (This is not to imply that all of the other fine engineers on GW are not "friendly!")

Anyway, it makes sense. Cooking "fumes" consist of products of combustion (with all gas cookers and also electrics when stuff get's burnt) and vaporized volatiles such as grease and steam. It all comes out in a stream moving upward away from the cooking surface, so effluent seems to me to be a reasonable, all-encompasing way to characterize it. It is a waste product that must be dealt with somehow, even if for some of us (and by some of us, I mean not me, usually) it means opening a window.
kaseki
12 years ago
Well, maybe the guilt starts here, although the root word means to flow out of -- which might reasonably refer to a pan. A better word from the same Latin root is probably effluvium -- a rising vapor of invisible or barely visible gas or particles. Plume is also widely used. Maybe we can have a vote.

I suspect that I picked it up from some commercial ventillation site. And lo and behold, my first stab in the dark reveals in Greenheck's Kitchen Ventilation Systems Application & Design Guide this example on page 4: "Hoods that are used against a wall have a tendency to capture and contain the effluent using less airflow than in an island type application." (as _we_ all know). I don't have NFPA 96 handy to see how the NFPA refers to it.

The Greenheck guide deserves to be in the forefront of the literature search all wannabe hood questioners should engage in.

kas

Here is a link that might be useful: Greenheck Guide
foodonastump
Original Author
12 years ago
Emilner - Actually I do say tomato.

Thull - Love the quote!

Mojavean & Kas - Thanks, mystery solved! Sounds like it's a Good Word to Use if you want to people think you're smart like Kas. ;-)
colin3
12 years ago
fwiw "vapor" is often used just to mean a dispersion in air of a liquid (or solid) i.e. not smoke, and my guess is most people associate the term with water vapor.

But I'm all for effluvium. Efflux. Stuff in the air.
User
12 years ago
I'm going to start saying miasma.
colin3
12 years ago
nebulosity
attofarad
12 years ago
Miasma aggravates my asthma.
angie_diy
12 years ago
I vote for effluvium or miasma. Then we can have fun with plurals (effluvia and miasmata, respectively.)
weedmeister
12 years ago
My Dad told me, "Son, don't step in the effluent." I've found that to be handy advice working around DC.
kaseki
12 years ago
So, is it 'effluvia' when the output of more than one pan is intended? Or is indistinguishable and mixed effluent still 'effluvium' and the plural 'effluvia' limited to the output of multiple cooktops into separate hoods?

I suggest 'miasma' be limited to the result of insufficient capture and containment.

kas
mojavean
12 years ago
Kas, you crack me up!
attofarad
12 years ago
I think "effluent" is pretty on-target with some of my cooking results.
kaseki
12 years ago
LOL
colin3
12 years ago
"Effluvia" sounds like a character in an Oscar Wilde play.

OT - ''Effluent''

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OT - ''Effluent''

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