Ventilation system for a cooking appliance

A cooking appliance comprising:

• an oven cavity;
• a forced air convection system exposed to the oven cavity for performing at least a portion of a cooking process, said forced air system including at least a fan assembly and a heating element;
• a duct assembly fluidly interconnected with the forced air convection system, said duct assembly including an incoming air inlet and an oven air inlet opening;
• a partition member, positioned in the duct assembly, dividing said duct assembly into first and second compartments adapted to receive an oven air flow through the oven air inlet opening, said first compartment constituting an oven gas recirculation side and said second compartment constituting an exhaust gas outlet side, said incoming air inlet of said duct assembly opening into each of the first and second compartments, wherein an incoming air flow is introduced into each of the first and second compartments to condition a temperature of each of oven and exhaust gases respectively.

A method of performing a convection cooking process in an appliance having an oven cavity, a forced air convection system including a fan, and a duct assembly including first and second compartments comprising:

• introducing a first, heated air flow from the oven cavity into each of the first and second compartments;
• directing a second, incoming air flow into each of the first and second compartments such that the incoming air flow mixes with and conditions the oven air flow creating first and second tempered air flows;
• delivering the first tempered air flow past a convective heating element;
• introducing the heated first tempered air flow into the oven cavity;
• and
• exhausting the second tempered air flow from the cooking appliance.