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Kitchen deep cleaning - kitchen design
A new kitchen is the best chance to build in energy efficiency, because the choices made at design time - the equipment, the layout, the extraction and heat control - largely set how much energy the kitchen will use for years. Designing for efficiency now saves energy and cost throughout the kitchen's life. Here is how to design for energy efficiency in a new kitchen.
The short answer
When you design and build a new commercial kitchen, you have the best opportunity to build in energy efficiency - because the design choices (the equipment, the layout, the ventilation, and so on) largely set how much energy the kitchen will use, for years to come. Once the kitchen is built and running, changing these is harder and more expensive, so designing for efficiency at the outset is the most effective time to do it, and it pays back throughout the kitchen's life in lower energy use and cost. The main things to design for are: energy-efficient equipment - the biggest lever, because the cooking, refrigeration, extraction and other equipment are the main energy users, so choosing efficient equipment (efficient cooking equipment, efficient refrigeration, efficient extraction, and so on - looking at energy ratings and efficiency) sets the kitchen's energy use substantially. A good layout - designing the layout well (efficient workflow, equipment sensibly placed, not more equipment or space than needed) reduces wasted energy and effort, and supports the equipment running efficiently. Effective, right-sized extraction and ventilation - the extraction and ventilation are significant energy users and are needed for heat and air control, so designing them to be effective but right-sized (not over- or under-sized), efficient, and well-controlled (able to run at appropriate levels rather than always full) manages their energy use and the kitchen's heat. Good heat control - designing to control heat (insulation where relevant, managing the heat the kitchen generates, keeping heat where it is wanted and out where it is not) reduces energy wasted through poor heat control. And - importantly and often overlooked - designing for easy cleaning and maintenance, because equipment and systems kept clean and maintained stay efficient (a design that makes cleaning and maintenance easy helps keep the extraction, refrigeration and equipment clean and therefore efficient over the kitchen's life). So designing for energy efficiency in a new kitchen means choosing efficient equipment (the biggest lever), designing a good layout, providing effective right-sized extraction and ventilation, controlling heat, and designing for easy cleaning and maintenance - so the kitchen is built to run efficiently and stay efficient. Getting this right at design time is far more effective than trying to improve efficiency later, and it saves energy and cost throughout the kitchen's life. This is general guidance; specific design should involve appropriate kitchen-design expertise.
Key points
Design is the best time
The key reason to focus on energy efficiency when designing a new kitchen is that the design choices largely set the kitchen's energy use for years - so design time is the best and most effective opportunity to build in efficiency. The equipment chosen, the layout, the ventilation and extraction, and the other design decisions determine much of how much energy the kitchen will use, and once the kitchen is built and running, changing these is harder and more expensive (replacing equipment, altering the layout or ventilation after the fact is costly and disruptive). So the efficiency built in at design time tends to persist for the kitchen's life, making the design the point of greatest leverage over the kitchen's energy use. Designing for efficiency now is far more effective than trying to retrofit it later.
This matters because a commercial kitchen uses a lot of energy over its life, so the difference between an efficiently designed kitchen and an inefficient one, compounded over years, is substantial in energy and cost. A kitchen designed for efficiency (efficient equipment, good layout, effective ventilation, good heat control) will use less energy every year it runs, saving cost throughout its life; one designed without regard to efficiency will waste energy for years. So the payback from designing for efficiency is large and long-lasting, which is why it is worth doing well at the outset. The following sections cover the main levers - efficient equipment, good layout, effective extraction and ventilation, heat control, and designing for easy cleaning and maintenance - each a way the design can build in efficiency. The overarching point is that the design is the best time to act on energy efficiency, because it sets the kitchen's energy use for years, so building in efficiency at design time is the most effective way to have an efficient kitchen. So take the opportunity a new kitchen presents to design for efficiency - it is the point of greatest leverage, and it pays back over the whole life of the kitchen. Retrofitting efficiency later is possible but far less effective and more costly than designing it in.
Efficient equipment
The biggest lever for energy efficiency in a kitchen is the equipment, because the equipment (cooking, refrigeration, extraction, hot water, and so on) is the main energy user - so choosing energy-efficient equipment at design time sets the kitchen's energy use substantially. The main energy users in a kitchen are the cooking equipment, the refrigeration (running constantly), the extraction (large fans), and the hot water and heating - and each comes in more and less efficient options. So choosing efficient equipment across these - efficient cooking equipment (efficient ovens, induction hobs which are more efficient than some alternatives, and so on), efficient refrigeration (energy-rated units), efficient extraction (efficient fans and systems), and efficient hot water and heating - substantially determines how much energy the kitchen uses. Because the equipment is the main energy user, getting the equipment efficient is the single biggest thing you can do for the kitchen's efficiency.
So when designing a new kitchen, prioritise choosing energy-efficient equipment - looking at the energy ratings and efficiency of the options and choosing efficient ones, especially for the big users (cooking, refrigeration, extraction, hot water). This may cost more upfront for some equipment, but the energy savings over the equipment's life often justify it (efficient equipment costs less to run, saving over years), so it is worth weighing the running-cost savings against any higher purchase cost. Efficient equipment is the foundation of an efficient kitchen, because it addresses the biggest energy use directly. So the equipment choice is the biggest lever, and designing for efficiency means, first and foremost, choosing efficient equipment for the main energy users. This is where the largest energy savings are set, so it deserves the most attention in designing for efficiency. Alongside the other levers (layout, extraction, heat control, and designing for easy cleaning), efficient equipment is the primary way the design builds in efficiency - so choose it carefully, weighing efficiency (and its running-cost savings) alongside the other factors in selecting the kitchen's equipment. Get the equipment efficient, and you have addressed the biggest part of the kitchen's energy use at the point of greatest leverage.
Layout, extraction, heat
Beyond the equipment, the layout, the extraction and ventilation, and the heat control are further design levers for efficiency. A good layout: designing the kitchen layout well - efficient workflow, equipment sensibly placed and grouped, and not more equipment or space than needed - reduces wasted energy and effort. A well-designed layout supports the equipment and staff working efficiently, avoids unnecessary equipment (which would use energy), and can help with things like keeping refrigeration away from heat sources (so it does not work harder). So a good layout contributes to efficiency by reducing waste and supporting efficient operation - it is a real, if less obvious, efficiency lever. Effective, right-sized extraction and ventilation: the extraction and ventilation are significant energy users (the fans) and are needed for heat and air control, so designing them well matters for efficiency - effective enough to do their job (removing heat, fumes and steam), but right-sized (not over-sized, which wastes energy, nor under-sized, which fails to control the environment), efficient, and well-controlled (able to run at appropriate levels - such as variable speed - rather than always at full, which wastes energy when less is needed). So designing effective, right-sized, well-controlled extraction and ventilation manages a significant part of the kitchen's energy use and its heat.
Good heat control: designing to control heat reduces energy wasted through poor heat management. This includes insulation where relevant (insulating to keep heat where it is wanted and out where it is not), managing the heat the kitchen generates (the extraction and ventilation removing excess heat, which relates to the point above), and generally designing so heat is controlled rather than wasted. Good heat control keeps the kitchen's energy for heating and cooling efficient and helps the environment (and the refrigeration, which works harder in heat). So heat control is another design lever for efficiency. Together, a good layout (reducing waste and supporting efficient operation), effective right-sized extraction and ventilation (managing the significant energy of ventilation and the heat), and good heat control (avoiding wasted energy) are design levers that, with the efficient equipment, build efficiency into the kitchen. Each addresses a part of the energy use - the equipment (the biggest), the layout (waste and operation), the ventilation (a significant user and heat control), and the heat (avoiding waste). So designing for efficiency means attending to all these levers, with the equipment first, then the layout, extraction/ventilation, and heat control - each a way the design reduces the kitchen's energy use over its life. The remaining lever, designing for easy cleaning and maintenance, is covered next.
Design for easy cleaning
An important and often overlooked way to design for energy efficiency is to design for easy cleaning and maintenance - because equipment and systems kept clean and maintained stay efficient, and a design that makes cleaning and maintenance easy helps keep them that way over the kitchen's life. Much of a kitchen's energy efficiency depends not just on the equipment being efficient when new, but on it staying efficient in use - and that depends on it being kept clean and maintained. Grease-clogged extraction works harder and uses more energy; refrigeration with dirty condensers works harder; poorly maintained equipment runs less efficiently. So the kitchen's efficiency over time depends on the extraction, refrigeration and equipment being kept clean and maintained - and a design that makes that easy (accessible equipment, extraction designed to be cleaned, refrigeration condensers accessible, and generally a kitchen easy to clean and maintain) helps ensure they are kept clean and therefore efficient.
So designing for easy cleaning and maintenance is a genuine efficiency measure, because it supports the equipment staying efficient over the kitchen's life. A kitchen designed so that the extraction can be cleaned easily, the refrigeration condensers are accessible, and the equipment and areas are easy to clean and maintain, will be kept cleaner (because easy cleaning is more likely to be done thoroughly) and therefore run more efficiently over time - whereas a kitchen hard to clean will tend to accumulate the grease and dirt that make equipment inefficient. So building cleanability and maintainability into the design helps the kitchen stay efficient, not just start efficient. This connects designing for efficiency to the cleaning and maintenance that keep equipment efficient - a design that facilitates them helps the kitchen realise its efficiency over its life. So when designing a new kitchen for efficiency, design for easy cleaning and maintenance too - accessible equipment and extraction, cleanable surfaces and systems - so the kitchen can be kept clean and therefore efficient. This is an efficiency lever precisely because it enables the ongoing cleaning and maintenance that keep the equipment (especially the extraction and refrigeration) running efficiently rather than being made inefficient by grease and dirt. So designing for cleanability is designing for lasting efficiency. It is an often-missed but real part of designing an efficient kitchen.
An efficient kitchen for life
So designing for energy efficiency in a new kitchen means building efficiency in across the levers: choosing energy-efficient equipment (the biggest lever, addressing the main energy users), designing a good layout (reducing waste and supporting efficient operation), providing effective right-sized and well-controlled extraction and ventilation (managing a significant energy use and the heat), controlling heat (avoiding wasted energy), and designing for easy cleaning and maintenance (so the equipment stays efficient over the kitchen's life). Doing this at design time, when the choices set the kitchen's energy use for years, is the most effective way to have an efficient kitchen - far better than trying to improve efficiency later. So take the opportunity of a new kitchen to design in efficiency across these levers, and the kitchen will be built to run efficiently and save energy and cost throughout its life.
The cleaning-and-maintenance point deserves a final emphasis, because it links the design to the kitchen's ongoing life: an efficiently designed kitchen realises its efficiency over time only if the equipment is kept clean and maintained (so it stays efficient), and designing for easy cleaning and maintenance supports that. So building in efficiency (efficient equipment, layout, ventilation, heat control) and building in cleanability (easy cleaning and maintenance) together give a kitchen that is efficient by design and stays efficient in use. And keeping the equipment clean and maintained over the kitchen's life (regular cleaning, including periodic deep cleaning of the extraction and equipment) is what realises the designed-in efficiency - so the design and the ongoing upkeep work together for an efficient kitchen. So design for efficiency (the equipment, layout, ventilation, heat control, and cleanability), and then keep the kitchen clean and maintained, and you get an efficient kitchen for life - built efficient and kept efficient. This is where cleaning connects to efficient kitchen design: designing for easy cleaning helps, and keeping the kitchen clean realises, the efficiency the design builds in. This is general guidance; specific kitchen design should involve appropriate expertise, and the ongoing cleaning and maintenance keep the designed-in efficiency real over the kitchen's life.
Questions
Because the design choices largely set the kitchen's energy use for years - so design time is the best and most effective opportunity to build in efficiency. The equipment chosen, the layout, the ventilation and extraction, and the other design decisions determine much of the kitchen's energy use, and once the kitchen is built and running, changing these is harder and more expensive. So the efficiency built in at design time tends to persist for the kitchen's life, making the design the point of greatest leverage over energy use. This matters because a commercial kitchen uses a lot of energy over its life, so the difference between an efficiently designed kitchen and an inefficient one, compounded over years, is substantial in energy and cost. An efficiently designed kitchen uses less energy every year it runs; an inefficient one wastes energy for years. So the payback from designing for efficiency is large and long-lasting, and far more effective than trying to retrofit efficiency later. So take the opportunity a new kitchen presents to design for efficiency. This is general guidance; specific design should involve appropriate expertise.
The equipment, because it is the main energy user - so choosing energy-efficient equipment at design time sets the kitchen's energy use substantially. The main energy users are the cooking equipment, the refrigeration (running constantly), the extraction (large fans), and the hot water and heating, and each comes in more and less efficient options. So choosing efficient equipment across these (efficient cooking equipment, energy-rated refrigeration, efficient extraction, efficient hot water and heating) substantially determines the kitchen's energy use. Because the equipment is the main energy user, getting it efficient is the single biggest thing you can do for the kitchen's efficiency. This may cost more upfront for some equipment, but the energy savings over the equipment's life often justify it (efficient equipment costs less to run), so weigh the running-cost savings against any higher purchase cost. So prioritise choosing efficient equipment for the main energy users - it is the foundation of an efficient kitchen and where the largest savings are set, deserving the most attention in designing for efficiency.
A good layout reduces wasted energy and effort - designing efficient workflow, sensibly placed and grouped equipment, and not more equipment or space than needed supports efficient operation, avoids unnecessary equipment, and can help (for example) keep refrigeration away from heat sources so it does not work harder. So a good layout is a real, if less obvious, efficiency lever. The extraction and ventilation are significant energy users (the fans) and needed for heat and air control, so designing them well matters: effective enough to do their job (removing heat, fumes and steam), but right-sized (not over-sized, wasting energy, nor under-sized, failing to control the environment), efficient, and well-controlled (able to run at appropriate levels, such as variable speed, rather than always at full, which wastes energy when less is needed). So designing effective, right-sized, well-controlled extraction and ventilation manages a significant part of the kitchen's energy use and its heat. Together with efficient equipment and good heat control, layout and ventilation build efficiency into the kitchen's design.
Because equipment and systems kept clean and maintained stay efficient, and a design that makes cleaning and maintenance easy helps keep them that way over the kitchen's life. Much of a kitchen's efficiency depends not just on the equipment being efficient when new, but on it staying efficient in use - which depends on it being kept clean and maintained. Grease-clogged extraction works harder and uses more energy; refrigeration with dirty condensers works harder; poorly maintained equipment runs less efficiently. So the kitchen's efficiency over time depends on the extraction, refrigeration and equipment being kept clean, and a design that makes that easy (accessible equipment, extraction designed to be cleaned, refrigeration condensers accessible, cleanable surfaces) helps ensure they are kept clean and therefore efficient. A kitchen easy to clean will be kept cleaner and run more efficiently over time; one hard to clean tends to accumulate the grease and dirt that make equipment inefficient. So designing for easy cleaning and maintenance is a genuine efficiency measure - it supports the equipment staying efficient over the kitchen's life. It is an often-missed but real part of designing an efficient kitchen.
Not entirely - an efficiently designed kitchen realises its efficiency over time only if the equipment is kept clean and maintained, so the design and the ongoing upkeep work together. The design builds in efficiency (efficient equipment, good layout, effective ventilation, heat control), but the equipment stays efficient in use only if kept clean and maintained - grease-clogged extraction, dirty refrigeration condensers and poorly maintained equipment all lose efficiency. So keeping the equipment clean and maintained over the kitchen's life (regular cleaning, including periodic deep cleaning of the extraction and equipment) is what realises the designed-in efficiency. This is why designing for easy cleaning and maintenance helps (it supports the upkeep), and why the ongoing cleaning and maintenance matter (they keep the equipment efficient). So build in efficiency (the equipment, layout, ventilation, heat control, and cleanability) and keep the kitchen clean and maintained, and you get an efficient kitchen for life - built efficient and kept efficient. So an efficient design is the foundation, and keeping it clean and maintained realises and sustains the efficiency over the kitchen's life.
Generally yes, because the energy savings over the kitchen's life are substantial and long-lasting, so designing for efficiency pays back. Some efficient choices (efficient equipment, good ventilation design) may cost more upfront, but a commercial kitchen uses a lot of energy over its life, so an efficiently designed kitchen (using less energy every year) saves cost throughout its life, and the savings compound over the years, often justifying any higher upfront cost. And designing for efficiency at the outset is far more effective and cheaper than trying to retrofit efficiency later (replacing equipment or altering ventilation after the fact is costly and disruptive). So the design is the point of greatest leverage and best value for building in efficiency. Weigh the running-cost savings over the equipment's and kitchen's life against any higher upfront cost - the savings often justify the efficient choices. So designing for efficiency is generally worth it, and it is the most effective time to act on the kitchen's energy use. This is general guidance; specific design and cost decisions should involve appropriate expertise.
An efficiently designed kitchen stays efficient only if kept clean - grease-clogged extraction and dirty refrigeration waste energy. Our kitchen deep cleaning keeps the equipment clean and efficient, realising the efficiency the design builds in. Ask us about keeping your kitchen efficient.
