By Kathleen Donohue and Martha Kerr, Neil Kelly Design/Build Remodeling

Planning a kitchen for multiple cooks can involve many different situations, and in order to meet clients’ needs there’s a lot of information to gather regarding how they use their kitchen. Just accepting a “multi-cook kitchen” description does not give you a clear-enough picture of what is truly needed, and your chances of coming up with just the right design for that client are a shot in the dark until you delve deeper with more targeted questions.

Are the cooks partners in meal preparation, or is there a chief cook and assistants? Is it a multi-generational family where grandparents and children cook along with the mom or dad? Does one of the cooks only prepare salads and hors d’ouvres? Maybe there’s a “designated griller” in the family. The answers to the various scenarios for the particular family will determine how we approach creating the multi-cook kitchen.

To start, we need to identify if the family wants and has room for dual-cooking centers. Can we include two sinks (a cleanup area and a prep sink), or do we include two sinks and two dishwashers? Should refrigeration be “decentralized” and located at point of first use so that each cook has access to the refrigerated items they use most often, or do we carefully locate a single refrigerator so that it is accessible to each cook without crossing their work path or causing a log jam when the door is opened?

If there is room and budget allows, a second sink almost always makes a multi-cook kitchen function better. A prep sink near a cook top, baking center, or prep area can keep cooks out of each other’s way.  More targeted questions will help you to determine if it needs to be a small bar sink or a larger prep sink.

A high-functioning multi-cook kitchen with unlimited space or unlimited budgets will vary greatly from the average multi-cook kitchen. Our everyday multi-cook kitchen would include two work triangles that preferably don’t intersect one another, or do so infrequently. One cook might go from the refrigerator to the second sink and microwave (located to the right of the refrigerator) and one might go from the refrigerator to the primary sink and cooking area to the left of the refrigerator.

Pay special attention to the door swings of appliances. We always draw them open, with dotted lines on the floor plan, so clients can visualize walking through the space while someone else may be accessing them from any particular work center. Try to engage your clients in visualizing working together in a space doing specific tasks. This helps to flesh out any work patterns or tasks they may have forgotten to mention but could be a serious inconvenience once the kitchen is installed.

The ideal multi-cook kitchen — with lots of space and no budget restrictions — would include two sources of refrigeration, a cook top (or perhaps separate cook tops, one two-burner gas and one two-burner magnetic induction) with separate wall ovens, two sinks, and two dishwashers. A microwave drawer might be included in a snack center along with under-cabinet refrigeration. Specialty steam ovens, speed-cook ovens, or convection ovens might also be desired — this is where asking questions about what and how they like to cook can really pay off.

Kitchen design is really all about creating spaces that work for the family that lives in the house.  Appliance placement, sufficient counter surface in the work areas, proper and accessible storage, and really good task lighting are all considerations.

If baking is a primary function, a lowered countertop for the baking center may also double as the work surface for the children who are learning to cook with their parents. If child participation is a primary goal, think about the ages and abilities of the children as you create the different work centers. The foodstuffs, utensils, appliances, and counter surface all need to be accessible.

If the multi-cook kitchen is being designed for a couple who both love to cook and entertain, you will likely be including a beverage center. The center could be located separately in a butler’s pantry or could occupy a multi-use area, such as a corner of an island, the end of a peninsula, or a raised serving area, and might include the coffee/espresso machine, a wine chiller, or under-cabinet refrigerator/ice maker, and perhaps a single drawer dishwasher. This area would also store the wine glasses, cocktail glasses, coffee cups, and other amenities needed for the beverage center.

Finally, a word about islands:  Islands in kitchens that have a 36-inch-high countertop on all four sides provide a great area for family cooking projects. With the counter surface being accessible on all four sides, you could likely have as many as eight people working around the island. If it’s a growing family, perhaps you have stools on one or two sides for the kids to have easy access. Whether it’s a family Christmas cookie project or the girl scout troop making papier-mâché animals, a kitchen island that is maintained at one height provides a fabulous work surface for many hands. Islands are a natural gathering spot, and, as long as they don’t block critical access lanes, they are the perfect multi-use center of any multi-cook kitchen.

It’s often treated as an afterthought, but a great backsplash can be one of the most crucial design elements in any kitchen. Sure, it provides practical wall protection against grease splatters, dishwater sprays, and flying cake ingredients, but a good backsplash also plays an equally important role in the aesthetic mix. When rendered in a bold color, pattern, or material, it can bring a commanding dose of eye candy to an otherwise plain Jane space. Or maybe its role is more of an equalizer. If the centerpiece of your culinary zone lies elsewhere, the backsplash can play a key supporting role by helping to achieve visual balance. A smart choice in hue and material will help to smooth out transitions between warms and cools, lights and darks, or shiny vs. matte surfaces.  

“Aging in place” means remaining in one’s home safely, independently and comfortably, regardless of age, income or ability level.  It means the pleasure of living in a familiar environment throughout one’s maturing years and the ability to enjoy the familiar daily rituals and the special events that enrich all our lives.  It means the reassurance of being able to call a house a “home” for a lifetime.

I am currently taking classes through the NAHB to become a Certified Aging-In-Place Specialist.  The classes are for designing and building aesthetically enriching barrier-free living environments for the adult market.  If you are interested in this, please give me a call!

Everett Pollard, (603) 763-2477, x-11

Given these offsets, manufacturers claim that a system can recoup its initial cost in as little as three years, but the payback period varies widely depending on the home’s average DHW consumption, local energy prices, geographic location, and other factors, such as whether natural gas, propane (LP), oil, or electricity is used to heat the home’s water.

TYPES OF SOLAR HOT WATER

There are two basic types of solar thermal systems:

“Passive” systems require no pumps or electricity to operate, relying instead on natural thermo-siphon action driven by the temperature differential between the solar collectors and the water inside the storage tank. Because these systems circulate the home’s actual domestic water, they are mainly used in areas where temperatures stay well above freezing.

“Active” solar thermal systems use a differentially controlled pump to circulate freeze-protected fluid, such as glycol, up to the collectors and back to the holding tank through closed-loop heat-exchange tubing, which transfers the fluid’s heat to the home’s domestic water. For maximum energy efficiency, some systems use a small photovoltaic panel mounted with the collectors to power their pumps.

Sun-heated water is not difficult to produce, and the solar collectors available today have changed little in form and function from those developed over the past 50 years. The most common, and typically least expensive, type are flat-plate collectors, which circulate water or fluid through serpentine rows of copper tubing arrayed against a heat-absorbing surface. Average efficiency ratings—the ability to convert sunlight to usable heat energy—for flat-plate solar collectors can reach 80%.

In recent years, manufacturers have increased the efficiency of flat-plate collectors by adding better insulation, heat-retaining glazing, heat-absorbing coatings on the collector plates, and other high-performance features. The low-profile collectors introduced by Velux in 2008, for example, have a complex, computer-designed pattern stamped into the absorber plate surface that refracts solar radiation to increase heat absorption and reduce heat loss from reflectivity.

Evacuated—vacuum—tube solar thermal collectors, the main alternative to flat-plate collectors, collect and transfer heat energy through a series of insulated glass tubes purged to a near-perfect vacuum. Evacuated tubes are growing in popularity because they offer higher heat transfer—manufacturers claim up to 99% efficiency—and are better at capturing solar radiation where site conditions do not allow placing the collector units at an optimum angle toward the sun. This is especially important in cold-weather locations. However, evacuated-tube systems have a higher initial cost, are more susceptible to snow and ice accumulation that limits performance, are at risk for vacuum loss, and are bulkier in design, which many homeowners and communities dislike.

Comparing solar product performance is difficult because it is based on not only the equipment itself but also on the geographic and site conditions where it is installed. The best comparative tool available would probably be the test ratings published by the Solar Rating and Certification Corp. (SRCC) for solar water heater components and systems. These ratings are the basis for obtaining points toward green home certification under the National Green Building Standard.

INSTALLATION CONSIDERATIONS

Homeowners  who expect to install a solar system, whether during new construction or at a future date, should design and orient the home to provide at least one roof section with an un-shaded, south-facing roof slope suitable for a solar array.

According to Coley Fudge of Alteris Renewables, a Vermont-based company that installs solar equipment from a number of manufacturers, roof pitch is another important factor, but it doesn’t limit a builder’s or homeowner’s options. In the Northeast, he explains, “a 45-degree roof angle is ideal, but in summer it doesn’t really matter—you’re going to get 100% [of solar radiation] from a 30- to 40-degree slope. In summer, the ideal angle is only 32 degrees.” Alternatively, roof mounts may be used to improve the collector position on less-than-optimum roof pitches, and solar arrays can be installed on ground-mounted racks when necessary.

Although the sun rises every day, it is not reliable as the sole source of hot water in most geographic locations. Building and plumbing codes recognize this and dictate that a fuel-fired heater be provided to support 100% of a home’s hot water needs, regardless of whether a solar-heating system will be added. As a result, solar thermal systems are sized to supplement, not replace, a home’s own water heater. Solar manufacturers are just beginning to adapt their products to satisfy the code demands. One recently introduced system, Caleffi’s Solarie Solar Heat Pump, eliminates the need for a separate water heater by including a backup gas or electric heating element in its storage tank to provide hot water when the sun cannot.

Buyers should beware that, in order to qualify for federal and most state incentives, the key components of all solar systems—the solar collectors—must meet industry certification standards. The most widely accepted certification is bestowed by the SRCC, which tests and approves solar equipment and systems based on ASHRAE standards. Another third-party organization, IAPMO R&T, certifies equipment according to ANSI standards.

Installing solar water heaters qualifies homes for points under most green certification programs. LEED for Homes offers two points for backup systems accommodating more than 40% of the annual load and three points for systems that account for 60% or more. The ANSI National Green Building Standard awards points (from eight to 20) toward certification for solar water heaters on a scale tied to their SRCC Solar Energy Factor rating.

Michael Morris is a freelance writer for Ecohome Magazine.