Halton HIGH PERFORMANCE KITCHEN concept and INDOOR ENVIRONMENT QUALITY (IEQ)
Labour shortage is the top challenge that commercial restaurants face today. One reason for the low popularity of kitchen work is the unsatisfactory thermal conditions. In the kitchen, the four main factors affecting thermal comfort are: air temperature, radiation, air velocity and humidity. All these factors can be improved with a well-designed air-conditioning and ventilation system.

What is the meaning of Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ)?
Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) covers fields of specialization include thermal comfort, indoor air quality (IAQ), acoustics, lighting, control systems and architecture. In total, the indoor experience is known as the indoor environmental quality (IEQ).   

About Indoor Air Quality, thermal and acoustic comfort
Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) as well as thermal and acoustic comfort are the main concerns of professional kitchen staff. They are all directly linked to:
- the Capture Efficiency of the solutions designed to remove the smoke generated by the cooking appliances;
- the strategy used to make-up the air exhausted by these same solutions.

A good Capture Efficiency allows not only to ensure that all the thermal plumes generated by the cooking appliances will be entirely removed from the kitchen but also to do it with the lowest exhaust airflow rates possible. As a matter of fact, this allows to optimize:
- the indoor air and the thermal comfort quality due to the absence of heat and smoke spillage
- the acoustic and thermal comfort due to lower exhaust airflow rates, leading to less drafts inside the kitchen while reducing the size of the fans for lower sound levels.

A good make-up air design will avoid unwanted draughts that could detract from the comfort conditions. A kitchen devoid of draughts allows:
- the Capture & Containment to work effectively;
- good thermal comfort for the staff.
This demonstrates that all the components for good Indoor Environment Quality are closely linked.

Halton develops its solutions to continuously optimize not only the indoor Air Quality, thermal and acoustic comfort but also the lighting effciency and the controls.