Energy-Use Characteristics of School Canteen Kitchen Equipment

As schools raise their equipment standards, how should a canteen buy kit so that energy—and energy cost—is reduced? The first step is to understand how school canteen equipment actually consumes energy.

Energy-use characteristics of school canteen kitchen equipment

1. Energy is used throughout the kitchen. Stir-frying, steaming, lighting, air conditioning, exhaust, refrigeration, serving lines, and hot water all depend on a reliable supply.

2. Kitchens may use electricity, oil, gas, solid fuel, or steam. The primary source should be chosen from site conditions and economics. Both combustion fuel and electricity are large loads and are the focus of energy-saving design.

3. Demand peaks in cooking and plating periods, when almost every machine is on—a pulse load.

4. Once a kitchen opens, it uses energy 24 hours a day. Refrigeration, heating, and hot water add idle load continuously. Staff usually operate equipment but cannot see the technical root of waste. If the design stage is missed, later fixes are hard.

5. Waste is both visible and hidden, and the two often coexist. Stopping visible waste is already difficult; finding hidden waste is harder. Managers typically use procedures to stop obvious waste, but rarely spot design faults.

6. As systems age, performance falls and energy use rises—for example scale on water-heater elements increases thermal resistance, and exhaust systems pick up extra pressure drop.

7. Subsystems are linked: start/stop times interact, and so does energy use. Changing one target moves others. More fuel at the range means more residual heat, more exhaust, more makeup air, and a different temperature setpoint. Cutting energy at the source therefore has a multiplying effect.

In short, effective savings start at the source and continue by trimming each stage. Hidden waste must also be designed out. The points above from CHINENG summarize school canteen kitchen energy characteristics; we hope they help.