Nose for a Mystery: What Caused Kitchen Aromas to Occur Around Campus?

摘要

We received a call from maintenance staff at a local university concerned about "kitchen smells" throughout a building on campus. The recently renovated student center had a kitchen, dining room, offices, study areas and a fitness room overlooking the football field. Building staff could smell kitchen exhaust odors as far away as floor offices, a considerable distance from the kitchen. The ecology unit was inspected by university staff and seemed to be operating as usual. An instruction was given to rebalance the ecology system and air handling units serving the adjacent areas. Hopefully, after balancing, the problem would correct itself. Initial site inspection showed the ecology unit was, in fact, operating and so were the air handling units (AHUs) serving these areas. The rotation on equipment was correct. Belts and filters were also in good condition. The ecology system located in the basement exhausted from two kitchen hoods on the main level. Energy was then recovered by passing the warm exhaust, filtered air stream through an energy recovery wheel located in a nearby heat recovery unit (HRU). The HRU also exhausted from washrooms throughout the building. These two air streams were combined prior to the heat wheel and then exhausted outside.