leel.....glad to get your feedback on the induction. Thanks! As for me, I certainly wouldn't mind having to buy a new pan or 2 for the new oven. :-) gsciencechick....thanks for the pots and pans suggestions and the confirmation about induction. I'm ready to be done with gas (although I love the way it cooks) because it's just so dirty to keep clean. muskokascp.....I HEAR you!!! Whatever happened to the days when we just went to the store and asked the opinion of the saleman or perhaps picked out a unit because of style or color? These days we almost have too much info, and it can become crippling, honestly. At some point I just need to make a decision. davidro1.....I love your 'final answer' comment. I WISH!!!! Although I certainly know a lot more than I knew before, I still have questions. But today at the appliance store helped clear up some things. (Meaning that they don't know anything either and I can basically do whatever I want). The inspector on our job (both HVAC and electrical) don't know anything about MUA and can't advise us what we should get. So I just told them I'd get something that wasn't too powerful, and they seemed fine with that. They told us to adhere to the recommendations in the manual that comes with the hood. I swear!!! It's not rocket science.....why is it that nobody knows about this technology?

OK, youall have succeeded in drawing me into another argument. Let's start with the purpose of the overhead vent. The vent is intended to capture and contain effluent contained in the rising and expanding cooking plumes. It has an overlap capture requirement that depends on height, and a flow rate containment requirement that derives from plume velocities and secondary factors. It is not for capture or blockage of grease splatter, as that could require enormous air velocities to achieve. Down-draft "venting" and pop-up side-draft "venting" cannot achieve the needed capture and containment provided by an overhead hood of proper specification for these reasons: Air flow velocity drops rapidly as a function of the smallest dimension of a slot air intake (see the 2003 ASHRAE HANDBOOK, HVAC Applications, Fig. 6). The air velocity in all cases is too low to significantly change hot cooking plume momenta except those plume portions close to the pop-up, so the overhead hood depends on the natural rise of the plumes. Deviation of the upward momentum to the side, or by 180 degrees to head downward, can only work if the plume has low momentum, as in steam from boiling water. Hot oil/grease/moisture plumes from wok cooking and searing will be poorly deviated sideways or in reverse. Fume hoods can have horizontal hood configurations, but the top and sides are blocked from allowing fumes to leak out. The turbulence issue is complicated. Up-rising plumes can be disturbed by side drafts, poor insertion of make-up air into the kitchen, and cook motion. Side-drafts will be pulling air across pan and pot clutter, so some added turbulence is possible, but I don't think it will be a significant addition except close to the pop-up due to the velocity fall-off introduced above. On the other hand, a pop-up can block splatter trajectories from the burner up the the angle between pan and the top of the pop-up and as far as the pop-up sides shadow the area beyond. For this function, no air flow is needed and much of the pop-up system hardware can be dispensed with. If a blank face is used (no vent holes/slots), cleaning may be greatly simplified. Underfloor ducting, blower, external cap can all be deleted. Some cabinet space for the elevation mechanism has to be sacrificed. While a pop-up splatter blocker is a good idea if the degree of blockage is deemed sufficient for the expense, the subject raises the question of why children are sitting in range of hot grease splatter. At a minimum they would need eye protection. There are requirements (that I don't have at hand) for desirable rises and/or runs of seating countertops connected to cooking surfaces. I recommend proper desks in quiet areas for studying. The student should be fully absorbed into the material to be studied without distraction (or at least as little distraction as a post pubertal youth can manage).

My feeling is that if you have enough space in your plan for a 36" range AND your house/kitchen is on the upscale side, that is what you should put there. I don't meet either one of those criteria, so my 30" is fine. If your kitchen does, then a 36" range is pretty much expected. The thing with remodeling from new floor plans and cabs on up is, you need to think about future use. Future persons will expect a 36" range in pretty much the same way granite/quartz/soapstone is expected in some kitchens while laminate is fine in others. In any case, I do think a 40" hood would look disproportionate over a 30" range. If you stay with 30", then I would look at other hood options besides the wood one in your cabinet line. I've seen some killer hoods that would look terrific in many kitchens (except maybe that "Tuscan" one ;-).

@opaone raises an important point that I'd like to expand upon. Commercial hood operation and its MUA support is one of the highest cost activities for commercial kitchens. The hoods run for long durations, and often require air conditioned make-up air, at least into any restaurant customer area where the pressure is set a tad higher to keep out kitchen odors. Commercial systems are thus designed for power efficiency. In residences, the hoods are operated for shorter periods of time, and typically (where MUA is nearly free) the cost of operation is small in the overall household power budget. Affordability then tends to be a matter of capital cost -- buying the hood, blower, ducting, and its MUA counterpart components and installing them. Striving for power efficiency through higher capital costs will take a very long time to pay off. Also, typical residential kitchens are ill suited aesthetically and space-wise for incorporating commercial hoods. The intermediate case is where the household is subject to stringent air quality requirements that cannot be met by just fresh air exchange. In such as case, treating MUA can be expensive, and the requirement for almost total cooking plume removal requires a large hood, high flow rate, and a lot of MUA. Here, commercial or quasi-commercial systems like opaone has incorporated may be optimal from an overall cost and performance point of view.