Itasca, Illinois — Most buildings don’t meet indoor air quality (IAQ) standards, according to a new study conducted by Fellowes.
The whitepaper, titled Achieving ASHRAE 62.1 and 241 Compliance: How In-Room Air Cleaners Complement HVAC Systems,” examines how the introduction of ASHRAE Standard 241 is reshaping how buildings approach indoor air system designs.
ASHRAE 62.1 has served as the foundation for IAQ through its requirements for ventilation rates. However, ASHRAE 241 introduces higher clean-air requirements aimed at reducing the spread of airborne infectious aerosols. As the whitepaper states, “The result is a growing divide between what buildings are designed to deliver with their HVAC systems, and what emerging standards require.”
Compliance with 62.1 is a prerequisite for meeting the requirements of 241. Findings from the whitepaper show that:
- Clean air requirements under ASHRAE 241 can be four to six times higher than those in ASHRAE 62.1
- Traditional ventilation-based approaches, including the widely used ventilation rate procedure (VRP), rely on increasing outdoor air intake and can be costly, energy-intensive, and difficult to scale with existing infrastructure. It often requires HVAC upgrades, ductwork modifications, and increased energy consumption to condition additional outdoor air.
- Performance-based strategies, such as the indoor air quality procedure (IAQP), can reduce reliance on increased outdoor air to optimize energy use while meeting evolving IAQ standards
- In applications, such as classrooms and offices, existing HVAC systems often fall hundreds of CFM short of ASHRAE 241 targets, requiring supplemental solutions to close the gap.
The whitepaper also highlights the “gap between current ventilation standards and emerging infection-control requirements, while outlining a path to compliance that prioritizes cost savings, contaminant control, and occupant health,” as stated in the document.