We are building a new house and will have a good-sized outdoor entertainment area and an adjacent "grilling porch." The main porch is about 20x20 and the adjacent grilling porch is 9x15. They are connected to each other on one of the 9 foot ends of the grilling porch and the Egg will be up against the opposite 9 foot wall. So the grilling porch will have two solid walls and two openings, one to the main porch and one to the side yard. There will be a 10 foot ceiling on both porch areas and the current plan (which has changed a few times) is to have a motorized screen across the opening of the large porch, but do a screened door and permanent screened wall for the grilling porch instead of another motorized screen. Otherwise when the screens are both down during the mosquito months, we won't have access to either porch from the yard.

TL;DR….has anyone installed an outdoor ventilation hood over an Egg (or other grill) in an area that is screened in? And if you have, how many CFM's is the hood rated at? And next question, does it do the job? We hadn't planned to put a hood in, but apparently we have a local building code that requires one in this type of setting (although not at all sure of the accuracy of that).

Information about this on the web varies wildly, so I would love others' experience with this. One site said a charcoal grill gets way too hot for a vent hood, yet we have a TV mounted over our XL BGE that hasn't melted yet, and we are talking maybe 10" of clearance from the back of the Egg to the bottom of the TV. The TV is usually covered when we are grilling, but still…

Thanks for any feedback…<sigh>I thought I was through buying appliances!

1. All the grilling shows and all fire chiefs have strong location opinions = NOT against your house wall!
2. Whereever you are, call the City (or County), ask for the Building Official and his opinion ... which may include his visitation.
3. Someone selling BBQ hoods in your area has the best Google/BBB reputation and they should be charged with CFMs and making it all work should it fail the first try. This should include a site visit for sure because of wind directions, et al. A simple Google search tells us that 1,200 CFM is a start & a minimum.
4. Most will not spend the money for a fire-extinguisher hood ala commercial kitchens, so please route a hose to that area to accompany your bottle fire-extinguisher stored there.
5. If no hood is requiired, then consider a big box fan blowing outboard so the chef can see what he's doing and breathe better.
6. Lighting is important if not supplied by a hood.

KUDOS to a great outdoor setup, will be over when I hear the beer is on ice .....

I did see some links that talked about the fire danger, and realized our Egg sits in the corner of our current porch and is sitting on an extension of our fireplace hearth in front of a short wall of tongue and groove cypress, and we have never had an issue with the heat. The new porch setup will have brick walls and the counter setup will probably also be primarily brick. I guess after seeing all the wood tables people use for kimodo-type cookers that it didn't occur to me that starting a structure fire was a big concern! This whole subject may open a bigger can of worms than I ever thought. Thanks for the input, though, it is appreciated!