ASHRAE offers a multitude of resources on IAQ, IEQ and environmental health. Learn more about featured products, or
browse the ASHRAE Bookstore for the latest guidance.
Free Download - IAQ Guide
The Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning is designed for architects, design engineers, contractors, commissioning agents, and all other professionals concerned with indoor air quality.
Developed in cooperation with the American Institute of Architects, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA), the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association (SMACNA), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The guide is now available as a free download.
Learn more
ASHRAE IAQ 2013: Environmental Health in Low Energy Buildings
ASHRAE IAQ 2013 reviews the state of knowledge on the balance between environmental health and energy efficiency in the pursuit of low-energy buildings. The conference covers a broad range of topics including residential and commercial buildings, new construction and retrofit, active and passive approaches, design, and operation.
Purchase the conference collection
Training
The ASHRAE Learning Institute (ALI) offers regularly scheduled professional development seminars and short courses related to indoor air quality. These seminars/courses provide high-quality, authoritative and credible technical information and all content is developed through ALI’s peer-review process.
Short courses, including Avoiding IAQ Problems and IAQ Best Practices for Design, Construction and Commissioning are available now.
Complete list of the courses offered regularly by ALI
Complete list of courses that are open for registration.
Clean, Lean and Green IAQ for Sustainable Buildings - an ASHRAE Satellite Broadcast DVD
This broadcast/webcast from the studio of WETA Public Television in Arlington, VA, challenges the building community to use enhanced IAQ practices to create a more sustainable built environment. The panel shares the combined knowledge and experience of over 100 industry professionals. The information presented here is intended for a cross section of professionals, including design engineers, architects, contractors, building owners, developers, and facility managers.
Available now
Standard 62.1-2019 - Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality
First published in 1973as Standard 62, Standard 62.1 specifies minimum ventilation rates and othermeasures for new and existing buildings that are intended to provide indoor airquality that is acceptable to human occupants and that minimizes adverse healtheffects.
The revised 2019 edition of the standardincludes significant changes, including:
- New informative tables of ventilation rates per unit areafor checking new and existing buildings ventilation calculations
- Simplified version of the Ventilation Rate Procedureimproving calculations for system ventilation efficiency and zone airdistribution effectiveness
- Modified Natural Ventilation Procedure calculationmethodology
- Revised scope to specifically identify occupanciespreviously not covered
Additionally:
- Natural ventilation now requires considering the quality ofthe outdoor air and interaction of the outdoor air with mechanically cooledspaces.
- Humidity control requirements are now expressed as dew pointand not as relative humidity.
Available in print or digital format
There's an app for that: Standard 62.1 for iPad, iPhone or iPod
Standard 55-2017 - Thermal Environmental Conditions for Human Occupancy
Standard 55 specifies conditions for acceptable thermal environments and is intended for use in design, operation, and commissioning of buildings and other occupied spaces. The 2017 edition of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55 incorporates seven published addenda to the 2013 edition, and provides three compliance methods: a graphic method for simple situations, an analytical method for more general cases and a method that uses elevated air speed to provide comfort. The standard has a separate method for determining acceptable thermal conditions in occupant-controlled naturally conditioned spaces. Given the widespread and easy accessibility of computing power and third-party implementations of the analytical method, it is expected that more users will favor the comprehensive analytical methods over the graphical method.
Since 2013, Standard 55 has been rewritten with a renewed focus on application of the standard by practitioners and use of clear, enforceable language. Requirements are now clearly stated and calculation procedures appear sequentially. For example, during design, a "representative occupant" must be defined, and the air speed and temperature they experience must be an average across the human body at three typical measurement heights. All informative background information has been moved to informative appendices.
Other noteworthy additions to the standard include clarification of the three comfort calculation approaches in the elevated air speed section; simplification of Appendix A to a single procedure for calculating operative temperature; an update to the scope to ensure the standard isn’t used to override health, safety, and critical process requirements; a new requirement for calculating change to thermal comfort resulting from direct solar radiation; and removal of permissive language throughout the standard.
Documentation requirements to show that a design complies with Standard 55 are contained in Section 6, and a sample compliance form is provided in Appendix K. Both of these sections are clarified and streamlined for use by owners and third-party rating systems.
Available in print or digital format