ASHRAE Journal - October 2010 - 83

iaq applications
The ASHRAE IAQ Guide discusses current approaches to reducing material emissions, including the limitations of current measurement approaches and labeling schemes.12 Among those limitations is the over-reliance on TVOC (total volatile organic compounds) concentrations as an IAQ metric and the inadequacy of VOC content as an indicator of material emissions. More fundamentally, we do not have a comprehensive list of target pollutants and associated concentration guidelines on which to base material emissions limits. While existing material labeling schemes reflect important progress, they are still fairly immature and need to do a better job addressing several issues: installed emissions over time and as materials are subject to environments that differ from the testing conditions; emissions of complete systems rather than individual materials; and, secondary emissions resulting from chemical interactions of emitted compounds and other airborne contaminants. Part of the challenge in achieving truly high performance buildings is the typical approach to building design, as well as standards development, that addresses building performance and design in distinct silos. There are energy-efficiency standards, IAQ and ventilation standards, and thermal comfort standards, with inadequate coordination of these inherently linked performance issues. As a result, buildings can be designed and built without an appreciation for these linkages and with less than optimal performance as a whole. High performance buildings should provide better IAQ conditions than exist in current buildings, and many strategies will not conflict with energy efficiency. As more experience and information is generated, the goal of truly high performance, sustainable and healthy buildings will be more fully realized in practice.
4. ICC. 2010. International Green Construction Code, Public Version 1.0. International Code Council. 5. NSTC. 2008. “Federal Research and Development Agenda for Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Green Buildings.” National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Technology. 6. DHHS. 2005. “Report of the Surgeon General’s Workshop on Healthy Indoor Environment, Department of Health and Human Services.” 7. EPA. 2001. “Healthy Buildings, Healthy People: A Vision for the 21st Century.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Air and Radiation. 8. Girman, J., G. Brunner 2005. “U.S. EPA’s program needs for indoor environments research (PNIER).” Indoor Air 15 (11):3486 – 3489. 9. Samet, J. M. 1993. “Indoor air pollution: a public health perspective.” Indoor Air 3(4): 219 – 226. 10. ASHRAE. 2009. Position Document on Airborne Infectious Diseases. 11. Fisk, W.J. 2000. “Health and productivity gains from better indoor environments and their relationship with building energy efficiency.” Annual Review of Energy and the Environment 25:537 – 566. 12. ASHRAE. 2010. Indoor Air Quality Guide: Best Practices for Design, Construction, and Commissioning. 13. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2010, Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality. 14. Baird, G. 2005. “User perceptions of indoor air quality in a range of large-scale facilities, with natural and mixed-mode ventilation-field studies in Australia, Germany, New Zealand, and Singapore.” Indoor Air 15(11). 15. Seppanen, O.A., W.J. Fisk, et al. 1999. “Association of ventilation rates and CO2 concentrations with health and other responses in commercial and institutional buildings.” Indoor Air 9(4):226 – 252. 16. Seppanen, O. 2008. “Ventilation strategies for good indoor air quality and energy efficiency.” International Journal of Ventilation 6(4):297 – 306. 17. Fisk, W. 2009. “Climate change and IEQ.” ASHRAE Journal 51(6):22 – 23. 18. EPA. 2009. “Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers.” www.wbdg.org/design/ greenspec.php. 19. Persily, A.K. 1997. “Evaluating building IAQ and ventilation with indoor carbon dioxide.” ASHRAE Transactions 103(2):193 – 204.

References
1. ANSI/ASHRAE/USGBC/IES Standard 189.1-2009, Standard for the Design of High-Performance Green Buildings Except Low-Rise Residential Buildings. 2. USGBC. LEED 2009 for New Construction and Major Renovations Rating System. . 3. ANSI/GBI 01-2010 Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings. Green Building Initiative. October 2010

Andrew K. Persily, Ph.D., is group leader, and Steven J. Emmerich is a mechanical engineer at the Building and Fire Research Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md.

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ASHRAE Journal

ASHRAE Journal - October 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASHRAE Journal - October 2010