How To Reduce The Heat In Your Kitchen For More Comfortable Cooking

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Whether you're trying your hand at making Julia Child's renowned coq au vin or whipping together a batch of delicious and chewy chocolate chip cookies, your kitchen is bound to get pretty warm by the end of the process — perhaps even uncomfortably so. Not only is cooking in a hot, moist room fairly uncomfortable, it can also become a safety hazard if the space becomes too stuffy and you begin to overheat.

The most practical solution to this issue is to ensure your kitchen has adequate ventilation, either in the form of an open window (which is the most budget-friendly way to ventilate your kitchen), or in the form of an exhaust fan. Kitchen exhaust fans can either be installed directly into your wall or folded into your range hood. Wall-based exhaust fans are incredibly efficient, as they drag heat from your kitchen and vent it directly outside. However, they also reduce the insulating properties of your wall, which may lead to higher HVAC bills. You could also use this portable exhaust fan from Amazon instead.

Though you can still lose heat (or cooled air from your AC) via a range hood exhaust fan, the path from your kitchen to the outdoors is less direct, so the temperature in your home remains more or less stable. Some range hoods also recirculate air through filters, removing moisture and grease before returning the recycled air to your kitchen. These models are less efficient at removing heat from your space, so you'll either want to upgrade your range hood or choose an alternative ventilation method.

If you're trying to avoid renovating your kitchen for the sake of staying cool, there are other ways to vent hot air away from your space. As mentioned, an open window can do wonders, especially paired with a fan designed to fit inside open windows. Most models feature two fans that can work independently, meaning you can set one to draw cool air inside while the other is set to vent warm air outside. This is especially perfect for preparing large holiday meals.

When thinking about effective ways to keep your kitchen cool in the summer, an open window likely won't cut it. In fact, opening the windows may let even more heat inside. In this case, it may be worth it to invest in a small window air conditioning unit to use while you cook. Combined with a robust range hood exhaust fan, this should help make it comfortable to cook your favorite meals for much of the summer. Just be sure to seal the area around the window AC unit tightly to avoid losing cool air to the outdoors.

During any time of year, you can also make clever use of box fans by setting one in the kitchen doorway to pull warm air out of the space. If your kitchen has more than one doorway, set one box fan facing in and one facing out to help circulate in fresh, cool air from the rest of the house.