The stress on the roof beams should be least at their ends, so the amount of structural enhancement needed to allow a roof penetration for a horizontal duct near the hood height should be less than for penetrating higher on the roof. You might want to consult with an architect who can engineer a solution for that location. I can't help with any illustrations, although you might check out Soler & Palau's web site. I vaguely remember that they had some unusual duct runs shown there. kas

I am looking strongly at Kobe, Electrolux, and also some others such as Zephyr, Faber, and Windster. The Windster is quite affordable. The Faber and Zephyr brands have some ones that have some 'rounded' design elements on the pipe area and front of the vent that look sort of nice. Gives a bit of personality to the hood, but not too much. Lots of my hem hawing has to to with what 'style' but the spec thing adds to the confusion. I look at them and try to imagine them over my stove and in conjunction with the other elements in the kitchen and after a while I am so addled that I shrink away from them all! I think that when you are in a remodel, all the decisions that you have to make begin to wiegh on you after a while and even little things can make you 'tilt'. I love my E-lux gas range - it was a find - a small scratch made it very affordable. Love my micro - an LG that looks like it was made to go with the range. Fridge is 'panel ready" - a challenge in my design where stainless would have made it easy. We will probably do something over the top like making leather or cowhide panels for it. We train horses for a living and as the saying goes, if you dont know what to do with it, cover it with cowhide. :) That is a challenge for another post and another day. Using rough slate on the floors - a natural and easy choice for us since we have a slate porch and lots of leftover tiles. Very interesting stuff and very tough. For now, however, the decision is about the range hood. It is gonna be focal, so has to be pretty. Cirone - you mentioned here that a 36 inch hood was put over a 30 inch range. How does that look? I have heard that it is recommended that the hood extend three inches out to give better capture area, but am not sure I would need to worry about that since I am not a major cook. I have ordered from Overstock and they were easy to deal with - made it right when my sink came dented. Ironically, Dianalo, I just talked to a sales rep at a Sears outlet yesterday and they have one chimney style Kenmore there with a scratch that makes it affordable. Long drive for me to check it out since I am in the middle of the woods but may have to go look. Would like to order online to make it quick and easy. Sparklekitty - Havent heard of Eurostoves so will have to look at them. Sounds as if they were good to work with. Artemis - which Kobe did you get? When it comes in, you will have to post about how you like it! Happy that you got your decision on that behind you as I know how hard the choosing can be! I am glad to see that I am not the only one that has gone round and round over this - thanks for all the feedback. Makes it 'feel all better'! :)

To clarify my ravings: I use the term capture area to mean the aperture area at the bottom of the hood that air flows into. I use the term capture volume to mean the volume bounded by the aperture, the internal sides below the baffles, and the baffle faces. Note that capture itself means that the cooking plume enters the hood. Ejection through the ducting to the outside of the building is called containment. Capture area allows more of the expanding plume to be captured; capture volume allows for space to ensure that any reflected effluent doesn't spill out before containment. However, containment is mostly achieved by adequate air velocity at the baffles, and not so much by the capture volume itself, at least in imaginable to me residential cooking situations. In this schlieren image of a commercial hood trying its best, there is plenty of capture volume and capture area, but due to inadequate air flow rate, there is partially failed containment. Obviously, slanted baffles will ensure more capture volume than horizontal baffles for the same distance their low points are from the aperture. They also provide a direction for grease to flow. Commercial hoods are required by NFPA 96 to have baffle angles greater than 45 degrees to ensure rapid grease collection, but I haven't seen any residential hoods with such steep angles. Capture area vs. Effectiveness. Larger capture area up to where all of the expanding plume is captured is better than insufficient capture area. If the blower rated air flow rate (usually spec'd at zero static pressure which will never occur) were the same for two different apertures, the larger aperture would have a lower specific air velocity (ft/min or cubic feet per minute per square foot). This lower velocity could be less effective for maximum velocity rising plumes than a higher velocity, depending on what its value was. But not capturing the plume due to inadequate aperture size would clearly be worse for effective containment, as the missed plume parts escape without any chance to bounce off the baffles. Also, only the peak of the plume angular speed distribution reaches the 0.6 to 1.1 m/s level that the baffles have to handle with adequate flow rate; lower velocity parts of the plume that are captured by the hood aperture area are easily contained. kas

Hmmm. The most powerful blower that will fit, operated at lower CFM, should be quieter than a less powerful blower operated at the same CFM. However, if the difference between blowers is only the motor and not the size or design of the fan blades, then the sound levels would be expected to be the same. We are discussing Modernaire here, so consult with them. They are competent to address your concerns and/or provide noise data vs. CFM. I don't know if they are willing, however. No elbow is better than one elbow for reducing pressure loss. However, even if a 10-inch elbow could be fitted, hood baffles will dominate the pressure loss in the hood system path, and make-up air (MUA) or lack thereof could easily dominate the entire air path unless properly designed. In any case, I don't see here any effort to define requirements before homing in on particulars. I have addressed this in many messages. Please specify the intake aperture size or area you plan to use so the required flow rate can be determined.