ASHRAE Publishes Residential Ventilation Standard

[Michael Brown]

ATLANTA -– The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers' (ASHRAE) residential ventilation standard is now available.

ASHRAE Standard 62.2, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the only nationally recognized indoor air quality standard developed solely for residences, according to newly appointed committee chair David Grimsrud.

The standard is intended for use by code bodies with many of the requirements already existing in one or more codes. It can be applied to new or existing houses. The standard provides the minimum requirements necessary to achieve acceptable indoor air quality for dwellings.

Prior to publication of the standard, ASHRAE addressed residential ventilation through ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality.

"The standard is appropriate for a wider audience, such as designers, contractors and engineers, of all who design and build residential buildings," he said. "While 62.2 has evolved from the residential portion of Standard 62, it represents a major discussion of ventilation issues in residences, a substantial subset of buildings that were covered only briefly in Standard 62."

Grimsrud said that the most significant new guidance contained in 62.2 includes:

• The change to continuous mechanical ventilation. "This eliminates long periods during the year when houses are under-ventilated if infiltration is the only source of ventilation," he said.

The adoption of a requirement for kitchen ventilation exhausted to the outside, which helps control the moisture and cooking-related pollutants generated in the kitchen.The cost of ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2003, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is $37 ($29, ASHRAE members).

To order, contact ASHRAE Customer Service at 1-800-527-4723 (United States and Canada) or 404-636-8400 (worldwide), fax 404-321-5478, by mail at 1791 Tullie Circle NE, Atlanta, GA 30329, or visit ASHRAE.org.

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