New ASHRAE 62.1 standard covers e-cigarettes and marijuana
April 19, 2016
By
CCE
www.smokefree.org
ASHRAE has issued a new indoor air quality standard, 62.1-2016, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality. The standard is used by building designers throughout North America,
“The latest version of Standard 62.1 contains changes that affect high rise residential spaces, the indoor air quality procedure, laboratory exhaust and demand control ventilation,” Hoy Bohanon, chair of the Standard 62.1 committee, said. “Designers and users of the standards who are involved with those spaces or processes will benefit from using the up-to-date requirements.”
Aside from the fact that multi-family residential dwelling spaces (not common areas) have been removed from 62.1 and now fall under 62.2, there are other major changes in the 62.1-2016 standard.
The definition of “environmental tobacco smoke” has been revised to include electronic cigarettes (“vaping”) and cannabis.
The operations and maintenance requirements are more closely align with the requirements in ASHRAE/ACCA Standard 180-2012, Standard Practice for Inspection and Maintenance of Commercial-Building HVAC Systems.
Other changes include:
– Addition of requirements to the Indoor Air Quality Procedure for determining minimum ventilation rates by including consideration of the combined effects of multiple contaminants of concern on individual organ systems.
– Assignment of laboratory exhaust to a default of Air Class 4, with an explicit allowance for a responsible environmental health and safety professional to determine that a lower air class is appropriate for particular systems.
– Reduction of ventilation allowed to zero through the use of occupancy sensors (not through contaminant or carbon dioxide measurements) for spaces of selected occupancy types, provided that ventilation is restored to Vbz whenever occupancy is detected.
– Changes of language related to demand control ventilation confirming that the standard is intended to be used for physical operation in addition to calculations for code review.
For more information or to order the standard, click here.
To read an article about IAQ standards and e-cigarettes, click here.
