Kitchen window above Kitchen stove

[dvasudharini]

I live in Coimbatore and I have booked an apartment which is under construction. The window in the kitchen faces east and that is where the stove has to be placed. The window will open out on to a small balcony. I intend to keep the window open only when I am not cooking. When the window is opened it can be a hindrance in the balcony. Instead if I decide on sliding aluminium windows, cleaning the grooves where the windows slide and also the small gap between the 2 sliding windows can be difficult. Also am planning to install an electric chimney which can be used only when there is power. And this chimney might cover the top part of the window. Please suggest design ideas for the kitchen window.

Thanks
Vasu

[Vivek Sivaram]

Hi Vasu

This is a classic case. A window near the cooking hob is always tricky. We had discussed this on the blog sometime back.

http://aavaas.com/2007/10/05/hob-placement-in-kitchen-user-query/

http://aavaas.com/2007/10/11/hob-placement-in-kitchen-user-query-part-2/

If you apartment is still in construction phase, you could arrange the vent for the chimney in a concealed manner.

Coming to your query - Sliding windows and normal swing open windows, both pose cleaning problems and this is heightened by the fact that you are cooking right under it.

The chimney i most effective when place about two or three feet on top of the cooking stove. If you do this, your window is going to be blocked too.

I could suggest that you have the hob and the chimney adjacent to the window if possible. Do you have some drawings which we could see?