Heat and Ventilate Smartly – How to Marry Heat Recovery and Heat Pump Systems in the Food Business

High temperatures and humidity are all part of the deal in a professional kitchen – but keeping them in check is the real job. Ventilation is a must-have for any restaurant, yet it’s also one of the biggest drains on your energy. Traditional systems just fire the warm air outside and heat up the incoming supply, while the combination of heat recovery and a heat pump puts that waste heat right back to work – boosting comfort, hygiene, and saving you a fair bit on the bills.

How the Link-Up Between Heat Recovery and a Heat Pump Works

A heat pump teamed up with a ventilation unit with heat recovery makes for a closed, fiercely efficient system. The exhaust air from the kitchen hands its heat over to the fresh supply air, and any extra heat can be used for the restaurant heating or the hot water. In the summer, the very same system can cool the supply air, making life a bit easier for the kitchen staff.

The new systems get up to 75% efficiency on the recovery, and they meet all the tough EN 16282 standards for professional kitchen ventilation, so they do.

The Financial Side and Getting Your Money Back

Ventilation systems in kitchens are running flat out many hours a day, chewing through energy. Sticking a heat pump onto a heat recovery system makes a massive difference to the energy balance.

• Average heat output: 28 kW for every 7 kW of electricity you put in
• Energy savings up to 50%
• Annual savings of around CZK 100,000 (for 14 hours a day, 340 days a year)

The outlay for a system with a heat pump is somewhere around CZK 500,000–700,000, but you'd have it paid back in just 5–7 years. After that, you're getting your heat for next to nothing.

A Good Fit for Smaller Kitchens, Too

According to the EN 16282 standard, even your medium-sized kitchens (any setup over 35 kW, so about 50 meals a day) have to have heat recovery ventilation. This means energy-saving ventilation isn't just for the big operations – the investment pays for itself just as well in smaller restaurants and hotel kitchens.

A Real-World Example: Hotel Královka, Bedřichov

The Královka Mountain Hotel is a great example of how modern tech and energy saving can go hand in hand. The ATREA system there grabs the heat from the kitchen exhaust and turns it into energy for heating the place and for the hot water. The result? They're using less energy, the climate inside is steady, and it’s a healthier spot for the staff to be working in.

“Heat recovery in a kitchen can put up to half the energy straight back into the system. It’s not just a 'nice to have' anymore – it's a financial must.”

— Jan Foret, Kitchen Ventilation Specialist, ATREA

What's Next: The Self-Sufficient Kitchen

With energy prices going through the roof and everyone pushing for sustainability, heat pumps and heat recovery are just becoming the norm in the modern food business. ATREA systems pull heating, ventilation, and cooling together into one setup — making sure the energy you make from cooking stays right where it belongs: in your kitchen.

Get in Touch

Every kitchen is different, so it is. That’s why we offer full-on design support, from the first idea to the final installation. We’ll help you build a system that’s spot on for hygiene, saves energy, and is built to last.

Give us a shout – we’ll design a system that saves you energy instead of wasting it.