When I fried things or used a cast iron grill pan, the kitchen would smoke up. Everyone said, put in a range hood with fan. But since we live in a coop on the 5th floor, we can't vent the fan out, so I didn't think the range hood would be too good. My husband hung the fan in front of our top window. Our ledge is wide enough. When we need the fan, we just open the top window from the bottom. It a huge fan & works great. Very happy with this purchase.