Most commercial kitchen hoods operate at 100% capacity all day long, even during idle, non-cooking periods. This costs the Canadian food service industry millions of dollars in wasted energy every year. Melink’s Intelli-Hood® Controls are the only proven solution to this problem. Using a microprocessor, sensors and infrared optics combined in one control system, they reduce fan speed during idle periods to save both fan energy and heated make-up air and thousands of dollars in annual gas and hydro energy costs.

The Melink Intelli-Hood® Controls have become the new industry standard for commercial kitchen ventilation systems. Engineers, consultants and operators are specifying them on thousands of hoods for both new and existing stores. They can be installed in any commercial kitchen from restaurants to hotels, hospitals, country clubs, schools, nursing homes, government buildings, and prisons.

The controls are extremely simple to operate. In fact, the only noticeable difference in a kitchen equipped with the controls is a custom made cabinet and a blue keypad. At the beginning of each day, the chef or cook simply presses the light and fan buttons on the keypad and that’s it! The hood lights turn on and the fans reach a preset minimum speed of between 10 and 50 percent. When the cooking applications are turned on, the fan speed increases based on exhaust air temperature. During actual cooking, the speed increases to 100 percent until smoke and heat are removed.