standard

In June 2000 ASHRAE's Standard Project Committee on "Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings", SPC 62.2P, recommended and the Board of Directors approved ASHRAE's first complete standard on residential ventilation for public review. The standard is an attempt by the Society to address concerns over indoor air quality in dwellings and to set minimum requirements that would allow for indoor air quality and energy efficiency measures to be evaluated.

ASHRAE Standard 55-1992, Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy, is mainly a prescriptive standard intended for occupants with primarily sedentary activity. This article discusses some of the issues being addressed during the proposed revision. The proposed revision will include an analytical method based on the PMVPPD method, where different levels of comfort may be specified. Using the analytical method requires better dialog between the client (builder, owner) and the designer. 

Architecture and engineering journals have been increasingly attentive to innovative non-residential buildings designed with operable windows. Such buildings may rely exclusively on natural ventilation for cooling, or may operate as mixed-mode, or "hybrid" buildings that integrate both natural and mechanical cooling. Architects who want to incorporate natural ventilation as an energy-efficient feature need to collaborate closely with mechanical engineers.

Designers, professionals and practitioners are currently making evaluations and sizing ventilation systems and apparatus in Italy on the basis of the Italian standard UNI 10339. This prescriptive standard is relatively recent, being issued in June 1995.

This British Standard gives recommendations on the principles which should be observed when designing for the natural ventilation of buildings for human occupation.