Guidance on clearing indoor air through improved IAQ

Guidance for achieving enhanced IAQ is available from five leading building industry associations and the U.S. EPA.

Source: ASHRAE

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Ensuring good IAQ means everyone breathes a little easier: occupants who experience improved health, comfort, and productivity, and owners who see increased building value and reduced risk.

New guidance for achieving enhanced IAQ is available from five leading building industry associations and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The book and CD provide strategies needed to achieve good IAQ using proven technologies and without significantly increasing costs.

The " Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning " is a collaboration between ASHRAE, the American Institute of Architects, the Building Owners and Managers Association International, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors of North America and the U.S. Green Building Council.

The book describes 40 strategies for achieving critical IAQ objectives related to moisture management, ventilation, filtration, and air cleaning and source control. It also highlights how design and construction teams can work together to ensure good IAQ strategies are incorporated from initial design through project completion.

Here a few tips from the guide on improving IAQ in buildings:
• Bring IAQ into the very earliest design discussions. Don't get stuck retrofitting the design for IAQ at the end of the process
• Strictly limit liquid water penetration and condensation in the envelope, and control indoor humidity.
• Where outdoor air quality is poor, use enhanced filtration and air cleaning to provide high quality ventilation air. Locate outdoor air intakes away from contaminant sources and provide the means to measure and control minimum outdoor airflows.
• Select building materials and furnishings that have low contaminant emissions and don't require use of high-emitting cleaning products.
• Exhaust contaminants from indoor activities as close to their source as possible.
• Recognize that O&M is essential to long term IAQ, and provide the access, training, and documentation needed to facilitate O&M.
• Commission from design through occupancy to ensure that IAQ objectives are met.

Order online through ASHRAE.