September 2022 ASHRAE Journal includes the article “An Update on ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1” describing changes incorporated into the 3-year standard update cycle. No notable changes to the ventilation standards were made, with primary efforts directed toward “clarifications, harmonization and improved procedures”.
The primary change made to the standard in this cycle is the title, changed from “Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality” to “Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality”. As noted by the article’s author (Chair of the 62.1 committee), “This may seem like a trivial change, but it recognizes that there are many factors that contribute to acceptable indoor air quality beyond ventilation….”.
Our readers have heard us for many years state that ASHRAE 62 ventilation standards are focused on buildings rather than people. Air quality management requires dynamic surveillance and control of indoor pollutants. Filtered fresh air and air recirculation filtering are essential for managing healthy air.
What is healthy air? You could read ASHRAE’s 718 page Indoor Air Quality Guide (ISBN: 978-1-933742-59-5), but we suspect as you reach page 427, you may begin wondering if the guide ever defines good air quality (note: it does not).
Healthy air is air that:
- • doesn’t make us sick over short and long term exposures
- • doesn’t reduce our productivity
- • doesn’t diminish our mental capabilities
- • doesn’t promote the transmission of infectious diseases
- • doesn’t have concentrations of allergenic compounds likely to trigger immune system reactions
- • is ideally as fresh and particle-free as Nature can provide
Every building occupant deserves to breathe healthy air, no matter where they are or what they are doing in a building. Relative to today’s unhealthy ventilation standards, healthy air standards require roughly twice the fresh air flow per occupant, with a similar amount of air flow recirculation through a high MERV (13 or higher) or HEPA filter. Interestingly, using smart ventilation strategies, as designed into the CERV2, we can have our cake and eat it, too. Yes, we can double ventilation rates and reduce ventilation energy at the same time! With human-focused indoor air quality standards, ventilation is only needed when a human is present. When they exit a building, smart ventilation systems sense the decreased need for ventilation, while dumb ventilation systems do not.
We will present more information on healthy indoor air standards in the next few months. Our goal is to present concise, understandable healthy indoor air standards that are based on scientific research, practical to implement, and only require 1 page rather than 718 pages to define.
