Commercial Charbroiler Improvement

摘要

Commercial charbroilers are found in about 30% of all U. S. restaurants and primarily used to grill meats. On an underfired charbroiler, the top surface is a grate that needs to be heated to around 600 °F. As a result, often the charbroiler is turned on well in advance of need to insure that the grate will be hot enough. In addition, the charbroiler may be left on for extended periods when few customers are in the restaurant. Along with the energy that the charbroiler itself consumes, they place a tremendous load on HVAC systems, requiring high exhaust flow rates and introducing a significant amount of heat into the surrounding space. However, a broiler provides a signature “char broiled” taste that cannot be achieved through other cooking processes and so they have, and will remain to have, widespread use throughout the foodservice industry. Since broilers are relatively low-tech, the opportunity to provide significant energy savings through improved broiler design is real. This paper chronicles the development of an advanced underfired gas (char) broiler to meet the real world needs of both end users and manufacturers, significantly surpass the performance of existing broilers (in efficiency and user comfort), and simultaneously provide benefits to utility companies and regulatory agencies.