Economic aspects of kitchen with assistive technology equipment

In Poland the percentage of disabled individuals aged 0-14 years is 3.1%, while in the age group over 70 years it is as high as 45%. The article presents an attempt of a variant estimation of purchase costs of kitchen equipment for the disabled. Three hypothetical types of kitchen designs were investigated: low-budget, medium-budget and high-budget, respectively. Based on literature guidelines and a review of market prices it was established that the costs of the three kitchen design variants are approx. 6000 PLN (1240 €), 42 500 PLN (9870 €) and over 225 000 PLN (52 530 €). A high percentage of the total cost of kitchen equipment may be connected with specialised mechatronic equipment (up to 40% total kitchen cost). In the case of the cheapest kitchen variant a lack of expensive specialised equipment may be compensated by an appropriate layout of typical kitchen components.