Greenheck Melink IH3 Operations - Manual (Page 17)

XI. Optimizing Energy Savings
Understanding Fan Speed Modulation, Building Balance, and Smoke Capture
At its core, Melink Corporation believes that all citizens should strive to be efficient with energy
usage. Melink would like Kitchen Managers and Maintenance technicians to understand a little bit
about how Intelli‐Hood operates in order to make smart decisions about the setup and save as much
energy as possible.
Melink Corporation assumes that a kitchen is designed for correct amounts of exhaust and
supply air before Intelli‐Hood is installed. If a kitchen does not have sufficient smoke capture or is out of
balance, then the exhaust and supply systems must be corrected before Intelli‐Hood is installed. Intelli‐
Hood cannot correct building imbalances on its own.
Intelli‐Hood uses two types of sensors to control fan speed. Temperature sensors installed in
the exhaust duct monitor the temperature of the exhaust air. Programming parameters for minimum/
maximum temperature and minimum/maximum speed determine the relationship of fan speed to
temperature. The second sensor set is optical sensors. Any time that the optic sensors see smoke or
other effluent, the System Controller sends the VFDs to full speed.
Tuning the temperature and speed setpoints is very important to gaining maximum energy
savings. One method is to set the Intelli‐Hood maximum temperature 10 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit
more than the actual maximum temperature of the hood exhaust air. Thus, when there is maximum
cooking load with no smoke, the fan runs at 80 to 90% speed, and the only time that the fans will run at
100% speed is when the optical sensors see effluent.
Also, adjusting the minimum speed as low as possible is improves energy savings as well. The
default minimum speed is 50%. It is possible to change the minimum speed to as low as 30%; however,
one should be aware that when the minimum speed is extremely low, smoke may roll out of the hood
before the optic sensors see it. Minimum speeds below 30% cause too much stress on fan motors and
should not be used.
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
75 95 115 135
Fan
Speed
Temp (F)
Temp vs. Fan Speed
75‐90
75‐100
75‐110
75‐120
75‐130
75‐140
75‐150