Ventilation System for the Lacanche

Because our range can potentially generate over 100,000 BTUs of heat, we had to have a commercial sized ventilation system installed. We were able to tap the exhaust duct work into an existing chimney and install the exhaust motor on the top of the chimney (keeping noise out of the kitchen). Because of the size of the exhaust system (we can move air at 1000 CFM) we also had to install a make up air vent. This vent has the motor in the basement and still sounds like a jet starting up when we turn it on. It also has an electric furnace built into it to heat air as it's drawn into the house. This is something we only need to use (a) in the winter (in the summer we just open a window)  and (b) when we're using the grill and only for a short time. It would never be on for more than a few moments so no need to worry about high electric bills heating make up air. I've included a few pictures of the system.

You can see the ventilation here in the hood. It needs to be on "high" to effectively remove most of the smoke from the grill. We often think it would work better had the grill been positioned more toward the center of the range (therefore more toward the center of the range hood) but it still works well in removing the smoke. Just make sure you have it on full power.

Here is the duct work for the make up air intake. The large black bulge in the duct work is the motor that sucks the air in from outside. The square part (left side of photo) in the duct work is the electric furnace that heats the air before blowing it into the house.

This is the grate in the kitchen floor where the fresh heated air is blown into the kitchen. It has a slider that opens and closes it. If it's windy outside we have to make sure the vent is closed. Otherwise, wind will blow through the intake (even if it's not turned on) and the electric furnace will detect air moving through the pipe and begin heating it. The electric furnace works on an air movement system where it comes on as soon as air starts moving through it (ideally by being pushed through by the motor) but, as I said, sometimes if the wind is blowing it will trick the furnace into thinking the motor is pushing air through. Closing the vent in the floor fixed the issue.

Here is the control for the make up air. Both the exhaust and the make up air are variable speeds. We have to manually make sure that each is set to the same speed. Otherwise we'll have more air going out than coming in or vice versa. It's a pretty easy system to figure out as soon as you understand the principle of balancing the air.  All in all, the whole system works great but I would never recommend anyone use the grill feature without an exhaust system at least as strong as this one.