ASHRAE Clarifies 62.1 in 2013 Edition
January 24, 2014
ASHRAE 62.1, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, sets minimum ventilation rates and other requirements for commercial and institutional buildings. The 2013 version, published in October, consolidates the 2010 standard with its 10 published addenda.
In addition to creating a consolidated standard, the 2013 edition has a few changes that were made to resolve inconsistencies and improve clarity, says ASHRAE. Seven of these clarifications are called out as particularly significant by ASHRAE.
First, the ventilation effectiveness of underfloor air distribution systems that meet certain conditions has been increased and is described in Table 6-2, Zone Air Distribution Effectiveness.
Requirements for the quality of water used in humidification systems have been clarified, as well as requirements for building level pressurization. "Exfiltration" has been defined as part of this clarification.
Exhaust rates are now described by the standard via performance and prescriptive methods. "This approach differs from the Indoor Air Quality Procedure, the existing performance-based method for setting supply ventilation rates, in that monitoring of the concentrations of contaminants of concern is required and provides the basis for control of exhaust flow rates," says ASHRAE.
Refrigerated warehouses have been added to the space types in Table 6-1. In the same table, ventilation rate changes have been made for sports-related spaces to allow for demand-controlled ventilation.
Wetted cooling coils now require MERV 8-rated filtration to reduce the chances that particulate accumulation on the coils will lead to biological or other contamination.
And last among the significant changes called out by ASHRAE to the 2013 edition, toilet exhaust air that is cleaned to Class 1 may be recirculated.
Learn more about ASHRAE 62.1:
here.
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