Ventilating oven heat?

[CLChastain]

This is the tentative design of a cabinet in the kitchen where the seldom-to-be-used but necessary compact electric oven will go. It will be in a compartment below the counter because there's already very little counter space.

The compartment itself will be small and it will get HOT when the oven is in use. (We have one of these ovens and I like it, but it heats up the kitchen almost as much as the full size range oven....) My idea is to put a small exhaust fan in a top corner of the compartment, at the back (the cabinet backs up to the rear wall of the trailer) and vent it to the outside, with a small toggle switch located above the countertop somewhere. Hoping the area around the oven will be roomy enough for the fan to pull in cooler air from the kitchen. Outside, the fan opening will be covered with a typical grille with insect screen.

I'm wondering also if there is some way to insulate the compartment, but that may not be necessary with the exhaust fan. If needed, what kind of insulation? It would need to be thin, as the compartment is already tiny. The illustration shows the size of the cabinet space available, and an oven with typical dimensions. Hopefully, one can be found a bit smaller but still large enough to be usable.

I've been looking online for a fan. Not sure of the size necessary. I've been envisioning something like the fans in a typical desktop computer case, but they may bee too small, and may not be able to take this kind of heat. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[noseoil]

If you have the room, a wood cabinet which is bigger on the inside than necessary would be good. I would think about using a liner, like aluminum or thin stainless steel, if you could find some cheap (off-cuts from the skin perhaps, sheet metal shop near you?). If the liner has a gap around the oven, it will let the air out at the top of the gap. A vent in the top will act like a chimney if there's an opening in the bottom for air to move from below. You could use some short pipe nipples to let the air in & out, & to act as a stand-off for the metal box to be isolated from the wood.

Between the metal liner & the wood box you can use vermiculite as an insulating material. It's a mineral & you wouldn't need much to have it work well. It would help to isolate the heat from the oven & keep it from roasting the wood cabinet box. I know this sounds a bit complex, but it would work very well & be pretty simple to make if you can find some cheap materials. Vermiculite is used in the building industry & is called "block fill" since it's used to fill the voids in block walls & provide some insulation.

Just thinking out loud.....

[CLChastain]

Thank for the reply and suggestions. I'll check out vermiculite. Making a bigger compartment would be the last choice because the space would have to be stolen from some other area. There is the possibility of a smaller appliance. The bottom oven depicted is about the size of the one I have -- 19 - 20 inches wide. The upper one is about 15 - 16 inches wide. I guess I would need to keep an eye out for an appliance that would fit without being too tight, so the air would circulate.

So if I insulate the compartment and get passive airflow through it, I wouldn't need the blower and vent? I like the idea of not putting holes in the trailer...

[noseoil]

When you make heat, it has to go somewhere. If it's vented to the outside, you'll need a penetration in a wall, roof, or somewhere. Some of the fireplace units sold now are vented to let the burnt gasses escape to the outside, & they use the same "sleeve" to pull in combustion air as well (inner & outer liner in a "pipe" which does both chores).

Unless it's winter & you need that heat, it's going to warm the cabin pretty quickly. A simple roof vent with a fan would work to clear the heat, but a small oven is going to make heat and lots of it in a small space. No matter what you do, unless it's pushing the heat outside, it's going to make the interior hot.