Managing indoor air quality (IAQ) to support health is one of the biggest public health opportunities of this century. As with most opportunities, however, there are also significant challenges. One of those challenges is changing the metric historically viewed as synonymous with good or bad IAQ: ventilation rates. Ventilation rates, per se, do not relate to human health thresholds.
While many of us grew up hearing the phrase, “go outside and get some fresh air,” we now know that outside air is not always fresh. Changing this familiar assumption is critical if we really want to manage IAQ to support occupant health and eliminate unnecessary HVAC energy consumption.