A Review of Current Standards and Guidelines Regarding Lab Air Change Rates

Gordon Sharp, Aircuity, Inc.

Guidelines and standards regarding the minimum air change rates in laboratories and vivariums have been in a state of flux over the last few years. About 10 years ago minimum air change rates were commonly seen prescriptively set at 8 to 12 air changes per hour (ACH). However, with increasing concerns over rising energy cost the pendulum on air change rates swung to lower prescriptive rates in the range of 6 to 10 ACH. More recently the pendulum on air change rates has swung back, more to the middle with an increasing emphasis on performance based setting of a wider range of air change rates set manually on a periodic basis or near continuously via automatic controls.

This presentation will review the current status of many different air change rate guidelines, standards and best practices on ventilation and how they changed in the last few years. Examples of recently changed standards that will be reviewed include the 2011 version of NFPA 45 Standard on Fire Protection for Laboratories Using Chemicals, the 2012 version of ANSI/AIHA Z9.5 Standard on Laboratory Ventilation, the 2010 ASHRAE 62.1 Standard on Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality, Chapter 16 of the 2011 Edition of the ASHRAE Handbook on Laboratories and several other US and International Standards that relate to laboratories. Finally, the presentation will also review some of the recent changes in ventilation standards relating to vivariums. Some of the standards that will be discussed include again Chapter 16 of the 2011 Edition of the ASHRAE Handbook on Laboratories, as well as the 2010 version of the ILAR (Institute for Laboratory Animal Research) Guide on for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals as well as AAALAC's (Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care) views on vivarium ventilation levels.

Biography:

Gordon Sharp is the chairman of Aircuity, Inc. and has over 25 years of wide-ranging entrepreneurial experience and more than 25 U.S. patents in the fields of energy efficiency and laboratory controls. As founder, former president and CEO of Phoenix Controls, he led the development of this world leader in laboratory airflow controls that was acquired by Honeywell in 1998. In 2000, Gordon founded Aircuity, which was spun out of Honeywell and is a smart airside energy efficiency company. Gordon is a graduate of MIT with bachelors and masters degrees in electrical engineering. He is Executive Vice President and a member of the board of directors of I2SL (International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories), the nonprofit foundation that operates the Labs21 conference. He is also member of two important standards on ventilation: the ANSI/AIHA Standard Z9.5 Committee on Laboratory Ventilation and the ASHRAE SSPC 170 Committee on Ventilation of Health Care Facilities.

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