Makeup air units are used for some applications which are not continuously in operation, such as commercial kitchen hoods. The commercial kitchen hood operates during the cooking time, while in serving time either it may not be in used or may not work with the full capacity. In order to keep the air balance in kitchen’s adjacent spaces which are being served by the separate AC units the separate system (MAU) with cooling or heating system (depends on the location’s climate) should be provided to interlock with the kitchen hood system to operate appropriately. This means, any time the kitchen hood operates, the makeup air unit will operates accordingly to provide a makeup air to replace with the exhausted air. Therefor no air will be taken from the adjacent space (such as dining area) to the kitchen as makeup air.
If the kitchen hood is staged for the variable volume exhaust air, then the MAU need to be utilized with the Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) to accommodate with the kitchen hood capacity at the same time.
Makeup air units are widely used for the commercial kitchens but they are used for some industrial applications as well.
