Patent ID: 8505530

Claim:
A commercial cooking equipment exhaust system for exhausting thermal plume produced by cooking operations, comprising: a hood structure including a downwardly facing inlet opening, a filter aperture positioned within the hood structure with a filter unit positioned therein, the hood structure having a rear side mounted along a building wall; a commercial cooking appliance located below the hood structure and having a cooking surface; a substantially vertical exhaust flow infeed surface extending from a height proximate the cooking surface and upward through the downwardly facing inlet opening of the hood structure toward the filter unit, the substantially vertical exhaust flow infeed surface located forward of the building wall by at least three inches and positioned to pinch off and reduce flow area for air to travel upward behind the commercial cooking appliance so as to enhance the tendency of thermal plume to attach to and travel upward along the substantially vertical exhaust flow infeed surface and into the hood structure toward the filter unit, where a space behind the substantially vertical exhaust flow infeed surface is not used for flow of air back into the kitchen, and the substantially vertical exhaust flow infeed surface is positioned forward of a lower end of the filter unit so that thermal plume gases traveling upward along the substantially vertical exhaust flow infeed surface are directed into a face of the filter unit.