ASHRAE Standard 170.1-2017 specifies both room and outdoor air change requirements for the mitigation of infectious disease. Continuous monitoring and control of airflow is required to ensure compliance.
Healthcare providers & patients need to be in the safest environment possible.
Title: Ventilation Control for COVID-19 & Beyond
Abstract: Outdoor air ventilation is essential to providing a healthy indoor environment. The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), brought about by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is putting new focus on the approach to ventilation design and operation of buildings. This is because control of ventilation above normal rates is necessary to create a safe indoor environment while protecting the building infrastructure.
A safe and healthy building is dependent on dilution ventilation and maintaining proper pressurization. A building’s ventilation system during normal operation strives to achieve acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) based on building codes. The setup and operation of ventilation systems has variances and limitations. When a ventilation system fails to provide adequate ventilation, the effects of this are not immediately known. Unless the rate of outdoor airflow is actively measured, determining under-ventilation may only come after it is too late to prevent the outcome.
