ASHRAE 62.2-2010: Residential IAQ Standard

John P. Lapotaire, CIEC

ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2010, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, is the only nationally recognized indoor air quality standard developed solely for residences. It defines the roles of and minimum requirements for mechanical and natural ventilation systems and the building envelope intended to provide acceptable indoor air quality in low-rise residential buildings.

The 2010 standard encourages home retrofits to improve indoor air quality through allowance of alternative methods for meeting the standard’s requirements regarding kitchen and bathroom exhaust fans. The standard currently requires fans in those rooms.

“This change makes the standard much easier to use in home retrofits, which is very important considering massive federal and state government efforts in this area,” Steven Emmerich, committee chair, said. “For example, installation of new equipment in some existing homes can be a barrier in terms of expense and practicality. Under the alternative compliance path, the overall whole-house ventilation rate can be increased to compensate for insufficient or non-existent bathroom exhaust.”

The overall approach to residential ventilation in the standard has not changed since the 2007 version was published, such as whole house mechanical for most houses, local exhaust in baths and kitchens and some source control measures.

Additional improvements to the standard include more accurate factors for intermittent whole-house systems; changes to better limit unintended (potentially contaminated) air transfer from garages, leaky ducts, adjacent housing units, and other such spaces; and deletion of an exception for certain climates that had allowed the use of windows instead of fans given that studies have shown that windows are not used enough and are unreliable for ventilation.

The cost of Standard 62.2-2010 is $54 ($46, 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, or visit http://www.ashrae.org/bookstore.

ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization of some 50,000 persons. ASHRAE fulfills its mission of advancing heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education.

John P. Lapotaire, CIECCertified Indoor Environmental ConsultantMicroshield Environmental Services, LLC www.Microshield-ES.com www.CFL- IAQ .com