Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Which appliances useful in your Common House Kitchen?

[Karen Carlson (kcarlson2]

We are a community of 40 households.  We typically eat together 3  
times a week with an occasional extra meal.  But most are potlucks.  
Here's what we found:

Common Kitchen
1.  Commercial fridges are known to be energy hogs so two regular ones  
may be better.
2.  We use a sanitizer which is what restaurants use.  All visible  
food must be removed so there's work up front but the machine is  
capable of doing 40 loads an hour (providing the incoming water is hot  
enough--and ours never is--still it's very fast compared to a  
dishwasher).  But we don't fire up the sanitizer if we have fewer than  
4 trays.  Maybe two dishwashers would be practical for your group?
3.  Commercial ranges require hoods which are expensive and costly to  
install.  Look for household gas ranges that have at least 2 high btu  
burners.  We have one ans will be buying a second.

There's an ample market for used commercial equipement.  Just be sure  
the cost of installation and  code requirements don't blow your budget.

While we designed our own kitchen, we hired a professional commercial  
kitchen designer to refine it.  The cost was very low (around $250!)  
bec we bought enough from his company to offset the full cost. (Our  
sister cohousing community has a lovely kitchen but a real flaw in the  
dirty dish area so we thought having an expert refine our design was  
worth the money,)

Laundry
Most of our residents have opted for their own washer & dryer.  Each  
of our multi unit buildings has a common laundry with one washer and  
one dryer (we planned for two each).  It's hard to judge how many  
households use the common laundry in my building--maybe 4 or 5--and we  
rarely have a conflict.  We don't charge for the use--talked about  
before move in but not since.

For both the kitchen and laundry, we designed the space and hook ups  
for 2 of everything but began with one.  For the kitchen, we'll be  
soon expanding to two each and this may encourage more prepared  
meals..  We decided against the freezer because we're not yet sure if  
we will be buying in bulk or putting food by for common use.  Because  
we designed a generous storage room off the kitchen we could add a  
freezer if need be.

I don't think any of our appliances are heavy duty but that may be a  
good idea for the laundry.

Good luck, Susana!

Karen
Arboretum Cohousing Community (Arbco)
Madison, Wisc


On Apr 27, 2009, at 4:49 PM, Susana Michaelis wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I volunteered to ask other Cohousing Communities which appliances you
> found to be most useful in the Common House kitchen.
>
> At a minimum I gather that we need one stove, one fridge, one
> dishwasher. How many washers and dryers, if about 6-10 households  
> use them?
> Any recommended brands?
>
> Do you use household appliances, commercial, heavy duty or other?
> Are your washer/dryers coin operated?
> Some people think we need 2 stoves, maybe a deep freeze or even 2
> fridges. Realistically, how often are these appliances used?
>
> When responding, it would be helpful to know how often a meal is  
> cooked
> in the Common House kitchen.
> We don't want to have excess appliances in order to cook a Christmas
> dinner!
>
> Thanks for your feedback!
> Susana Michaelis
> www.pacificgardens.ca
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/