ASHRAE publishes updated health care facility ventilation standard

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage, ASHRAE has released an updated edition of ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities.

The standard offers guidance, regulation, and mandates to designers of health care facilities.

In a news release, ASHRAE officials said that the 2021 edition delivers what it calls “critical guidance” for designers and operators of these front-line facilities and incorporates 17 addenda to the 2017 edition of the standard.

Changes include:

• Expanded requirements to allow airborne infectious isolation room exhaust discharge to general exhaust under certain conditions
• Revised scope, with improved guidance on thermal comfort conditions provided
• Extensive modifications to address the Outpatient and Residential sections
• Extensive revisions to air filtration requirements
• Addition of new columns in the ventilation tables to prescribe filtration requirement and designate unoccupied turndown
• Expanded guidance on separation distance requirements for varied intake and exhaust arrangements, coordinating with related ASHRAE Standard 62.1 data
• Improved guidance related to behavioral and mental health

To purchase ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170-2021, Ventilation of Health Care Facilities, visit the ASHRAE Bookstore or contact ASHRAE Customer Service by phone at 1-800-527-4723 (U.S. and Canada), or 404-636-8400 (worldwide).