ASHRAE Standard 62.2
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is a technical standards development body.
ASHRAE Standard 62.2 is the ventilation standard that applies to low-rise residential buildings three stories or less in the U.S. It is reviewed and revised every three years, with supplements and addenda being published between updates.
History of Ventilation Standards
- Late 1800s – Proper ventilation in the U.S. was defined as 30 cfm/person
- 1925 – This ventilation rate was set by law in 22 states
- 1973 – ASHRAE Standard 62-1973 required ventilation in most buildings of 20 cfm per person
- 1981 – ASHRAE 62 reduced the rate to 5 cfm per person in an effort to address the energy impact of ventilation. This was quickly found to be far too low a ventilation rate
- 1989 – ASHRAE 62 was updated and set a residential ventilation rate of 15 cfm per person or 0.35 ACH, whichever was higher. However, this version contained only a half-page on residential ventilation
- 1997 – ASHRAE separated the overall standard into two documents: SPC 62.1 (all occupancies other than low-rise residential) and SPC 62.2 (low-rise residential only)
- 1999 – The complete draft of Standard 62.2 was first sent out for public review and included a requirement for continuous whole-building ventilation at a rate of 7.5 cfm per person plus 0.01 cfm per square foot of occupiable area
- 2003 – After three public reviews, the new residential IAQ standard was first published and was updated in 2004 as an ANSI/ASHRAE standard
- 2007, 2010, 2013 – Updates were published per the established 3-year cycle requirement
