August 11, 2004—Research to assist users of The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers ventilation standard in correctly determining ventilation rates for systems serving multiple spaces has been approved for funding.
ASHRAE approved funding totaling $759,073 for seven research projects in the areas of design tools, and indoor air quality, comfort and health at its 2004 Annual Meeting. Among them is 1276-RP, Multiple Space Effects on Ventilation System Efficiency in Standard 62. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62-2001,Ventilation for Acceptable Air Quality, contains an equation used to adjust an HVAC systems outdoor air intake requirement, accounting for variations in supply airflow rates and ventilation needs among the spaces it serves.
The adjustment tends to increase outdoor requirements above the sum-of-zone outdoor air requirements by 10 to 200 percent depending upon the population diversity among the spaces served and the nature of the HVAC system design, according to Steven Taylor, a member of ASHRAEs Technical Committee (TC) 5.12, Ventilation Requirements and Infiltration, which sponsored the project.
“Due in part to this significant impact on ventilation rates and because of its complexity, the equation is controversial and many users of the standard ignore it,” Taylor said.
The research will improve the standard and model building codes that are based on the standard by providing direction for how to correctly determine ventilation rates for systems serving multiple spaces.
The principal investigator is Grenville Yuill, Ph.D., P.Eng., Building Solutions Inc., Lincoln, Neb. The project is expected to take a year to complete at a cost of $98,050.
