ASHARAE's Guidelines/IAQ, Open for Public Comment

[Guest guest]

Taken from a post on the IEQuality Board by Hal Levin:

ASHRAE has just announced the 45-day public review of the first draft of

Guideline 10P, " Criteria for Achieving Acceptable Indoor Environments. " The

document can be downloaded and comments are invited from all interested

parties.

Creating acceptable indoor environmental conditions can be more complex than

simply meeting each of the separate standards and guidelines. Interactions

between various factors in the indoor environment can make an otherwise

apparently acceptable building environment less acceptable to a substantial

fraction of the occupants. The Public Review Draft of Guideline 10P calls

attention to many interactions that designers might not have previously

recognized or understood. These interactions can strongly influence occupant

reactions to and perceptions of the quality of the indoor environment.

Guideline 10 will be most helpful to designers who want to understand the

interactions between the thermal conditions and indoor air quality. While the

two are addressed separately in ASHRAE Standards 55 and 62, their important

interactions are not addressed there.

Guideline 10P PR tells us, for example, that the warmer the air, the poorer

and

stuffier the air quality is perceived by occupants. This suggests that while

the

thermal comfort range spans several degrees, the lower end of the range

should

be preferred when there are known to be sources of pollutants. Concomitantly,

when the thermal conditions are expected be at the higher end of the thermal

comfort range, extra care must be taken to reduce indoor air pollutant

sources

or increase dilution with outdoor air. By carefully selecting the materials

that

are used in construction and furnishings, designers will be able to reduce

the

likelihood that occupants will find the air quality unacceptable, even at the

upper end of the thermal comfort range. When pollutant sources are known to

be

present or are unavoidable, designing buildings to maintain temperatures at

the

lower end of the thermal comfort range will decrease the likelihood of

complaints and reports of sick building symptoms.

You don't have to be an ASHRAE member to comment on the draft guideline. You

can

learn more by point your web browser at

http://www.ashrae.org/content/ASHRAE/ASHRAE/ArticleAltFormat/200556115849_347.

pd

f or by copying the url into your web browser.

You can download the draft and make comments during the public review by

clicking on

http://www.ashrae.org/template/TechnologyLinkLanding/category/1634

or by copying this url into your web browser.

Hal Levin

Building Ecology Research Group

hal.levin@...