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Keeping a Riverside Kitchen Cool in Summer

By kitchen remodeling riverside works

It is a late July afternoon in Riverside. The thermostat reads fine in the living room, yet the kitchen feels like a different house: the counter by the window is warm to the touch, the oven has been on for forty minutes, and the overhead fixture adds its own glow of heat. Anyone who has cooked dinner through an Inland Empire summer knows that feeling. A remodel is the one moment when most of the causes can be fixed at once, because walls, windows, appliances and lighting are all open for change.

Why Riverside kitchens run hotter than the rest of the house

Riverside sits inland, away from the marine air that keeps coastal kitchens mild. Summer days are long, dry and bright, and nights do not always cool down enough to flush the heat out of a building. A kitchen collects heat from three directions at once: sunlight through glass, warmth from cooking appliances, and the steady output of lights and electronics. In most rooms only the first one matters much. In a kitchen all three stack up during the same late afternoon hours when the outdoor temperature peaks.

The layout of many local homes adds to the problem. A lot of the 1950s and 1960s ranch tracts across Arlington Heights and La Sierra placed the kitchen at the back of the house with a window over the sink, and the back of the house often faces west. Older Craftsman homes in the Wood Streets tend to have smaller kitchens with less cross ventilation, so heat lingers once it builds. Knowing which of these patterns describes your house helps decide where the remodel budget should go first.

Start with the glass

Sunlight through a window is usually the largest single source of unwanted heat in a summer kitchen. The term for it is solar heat gain, and window makers rate it with a number called the solar heat gain coefficient. A lower number means less of the sun's energy passes through as heat. For a west or south facing kitchen window in Riverside, choosing glass with a low solar heat gain rating is one of the most effective changes available, because it works every afternoon without anyone doing anything.

A few practical points help when picking replacement windows:

• Look at the rating label, not just the brochure. Window labels list the solar heat gain coefficient alongside the insulating value. Compare those numbers between options rather than relying on general claims about efficiency.
• Size and position matter as much as the glass. A remodel that enlarges a west facing window to brighten the room can make the afternoon heat noticeably worse. Moving the larger opening to a north wall, or using a clerestory high on the wall, brings in light without the low, direct afternoon sun.
• Outdoor shade beats indoor shade. A blind or curtain inside the glass stops glare, but the heat is already in the room by the time the sun hits it. An awning, a pergola with climbing plants, or a deep roof overhang stops the sun before it reaches the window.

Homeowners near Victoria Avenue sometimes have mature trees on the west side of the lot. A deciduous tree shades the kitchen in summer and lets winter sun through after the leaves drop, which is exactly the pattern a Riverside kitchen wants. If the remodel involves moving a window, it is worth checking where the tree canopy actually falls during summer afternoons before settling on a location.

Cooking appliances: where the heat comes from

A gas range releases a lot of heat into the room that never reaches the food. Flames wrap around the sides of a pan and warm the air above the cooktop. An oven running at high temperature for an hour also leaks heat through its door and vents even when well insulated. During a remodel there are three appliance decisions that change how hot the kitchen feels.

Consider induction for the cooktop

Induction cooking heats the pan directly through a magnetic field, so the cooktop surface itself stays much cooler than a gas burner or a radiant electric element. Far less heat spills into the room around the pan. Many cooks notice the difference on the first summer evening, standing at the stove without the wave of warmth that comes off an open flame. Switching does require the right electrical supply and compatible cookware, which a separate article on this site covers in more detail.

Think about a second, smaller oven

Heating a full size oven to roast a few vegetables puts a lot of heat into the kitchen for a small job. A remodel is a good time to add a countertop or built in speed oven, or a wall oven with a smaller upper cavity. Using the small oven for weeknight meals and saving the big one for larger cooking keeps the kitchen noticeably cooler through summer.

Do not box the refrigerator in against a hot wall

A refrigerator moves heat from inside the box to the room through coils, usually at the back or underneath. When it sits in a tight enclosure or against a west facing exterior wall that bakes all afternoon, it runs longer and dumps more heat into the kitchen. Leaving the clearance the manufacturer specifies around the unit, and avoiding a spot right next to the range or oven, helps it run less.

Ventilation that actually removes heat

A range hood is often thought of as a smoke and grease device, but in a hot climate it is also the best tool for pulling cooking heat out of the room before it spreads. A hood only does this if it is ducted outdoors. Recirculating hoods filter the air and blow it back into the kitchen, warmth included.

Placement and capture area matter. A hood that is slightly wider than the cooktop and mounted at the height the manufacturer recommends captures the rising plume far better than a narrow hood mounted high. Running it on a low setting for the whole time the stove is on, rather than switching it on only when smoke appears, keeps the heat from building up in the first place.

Ceiling fans and air movement

Moving air across skin makes a room feel cooler even when the temperature has not changed. A ceiling fan over the eating area or the main work aisle can make a warm kitchen comfortable on evenings when the air conditioning is struggling. The fan should not sit directly over the cooktop, because the moving air disturbs gas flames and pushes cooking fumes away from the hood. Placing it over the island seating or the far end of the room keeps both jobs working.

Lighting that does not add heat

Older kitchens often still have incandescent or halogen fixtures, including recessed cans and under cabinet puck lights. Most of the energy those lamps use turns into heat rather than light. Replacing them with LED fixtures cuts that heat to a small fraction while giving the same or better light. In a kitchen with a dozen recessed cans, the difference on a summer evening is easy to feel.

When choosing LED lamps, look at the color temperature listed on the package. Warmer light around the lower end of the range suits dining areas, while slightly cooler light helps over prep counters. Dimmers and separate switching zones let you run only the lights you need, which saves a little more energy and a little more heat.

Insulation and air sealing while the walls are open

If the remodel opens exterior walls, it is the cheapest time the house will ever offer to add insulation to those cavities. Many older Riverside homes, including some of the ranch houses in Canyon Crest built before modern energy rules, have little or no insulation in exterior walls. Filling those cavities and sealing gaps around pipes, wiring and vent openings slows the flow of outdoor heat into the kitchen and makes the air conditioning more effective. The same work also reduces the dust that blows in during Santa Ana wind events in the fall.

Putting the pieces in order

Not every kitchen needs every change. A simple way to rank them for your own house is to stand in the kitchen at five in the afternoon in August and notice where the heat is coming from. If the counter by the window is the hottest spot, glass and shading come first. If the stove area is the problem, look at induction and a ducted hood. If the whole room feels stuffy, ventilation, fans and insulation should lead. Most Riverside homeowners find that two or three targeted choices, made during the remodel instead of after it, turn the kitchen from the hottest room in the house into one that is pleasant to cook in all summer.