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• ASHRAE Publishes New Standard 62.1  

ASHRAE has published the latest version of ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2007, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, which sets minimum ventilation rates and other requirements for commercial and institutional buildings. The new 2007 ventilation standard contains key changes impacting ventilation system designers and their designs.

"Standard 62.1 has served the building industry and the public as the most prominent standard on ventilation for indoor air quality," Dennis Stanke, committee chair, said. "Changes in the 2007 standard build on the improvements published in the 2004 version, providing additional guidance for designers of building ventilation systems."

The new standard includes requirements for the separation of areas with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) from areas without ETS in the same building. Although some local building and health codes prohibit smoking indoors in many buildings and locations, other codes allow smoking in designated areas. In buildings that allow smoking in designated areas, effective separation of ETS areas ensures "ETS-free" areas contain little or no ETS-related contaminants. The new separation requirements help designers ensure effective separation, according to Stanke.

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