Brief Overview of ASHRAE Standard 241 – Control of Infectious Aerosols | Review by Tony Abate with AtmosAir Solutions

In this video, Tony Abate, AtmosAir’s Chief Technology Officer, reviews ASHRAE Standard 241.

Tony worked tirelessly on this committee with Dr. William P. Bahnfleth, Ph.D., P.E., Fellow/Presidential Member ASHRAE, and the rest of the committee to complete this standard in record time.

You can watch the full video version of this podcast on our YouTube Channel: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@HVAC-TV⁠⁠

The Engineers HVAC Podcast: ⁠⁠https://anchor.fm/engineers-hvac-podcast⁠⁠

Connect with me on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-mormino⁠⁠

Insight Partners (Commercial HVAC Products in NC, SC, GA): Website: ⁠www.insightusa.com⁠⁠

Hobbs & Assocaited, Inc. (Commercial HVAC Products in VA, TN, MD, AL): ⁠⁠www.hobbsassociates.com

In late 2022, the White House contacted ASHRAE to help prepare for the upcoming expiration of Title 42 (in May 2023) and the end of the COVID public health emergency. The government tasked ASHRAE with the job of creating guidance on how to operate buildings in a way to help prevent the spread of airborne infectious illnesses.

During the pandemic, operators of indoor spaces were completely unprepared on how to mitigate and combat the spread of COVID. Proper guidance on how to make indoor spaces safe from the spread of the virus was inconsistent, and many people used untested technologies and inadequate products which were deemed to be ineffective. As a result, a new standard on how to protect people from the spread of infectious airborne illnesses in indoor spaces was needed and ASHRAE became the guiding force behind this initiative.

By December 2022, ASHRAE assembled a SPC (Special Project Committee) under the leadership of William Bahnfleth, a former ASHRAE president, to serve as the leadership behind establishing the framework for the standard. By invitation only, a committee of industry experts and thought leaders, including Tony Abate, the CTO of AtmosAir, came together to work on outlining the standard.

The development of Standard 214 is a multi-faceted approach to address all types of environments, commercial buildings, residential, retail, healthcare, institutional and many others. The standard touches on many aspects of enhancing indoor environments to reduce the spread of infectious aerosols including:

• Infection Risk Management Mode (IRMM) – Establishes requirements for an infection risk management mode (IRMM), which applies during identified periods of elevated disease transmission risk. Authorities having jurisdiction can determine when the enhanced protections of Standard 241 are required. Resilience (the ability to respond to extreme circumstances outside normal conditions) in indoor air quality control design and operations is introduced.

• Requirements for Equivalent Clean Airflow Rate – Sets requirements for equivalent clean airflow rate target per occupant of pathogen free airflow, reducing the risk of infection.

• Requirements for Use of Filtration and Air Cleaning Technology – Provides extensive requirements for use of filtration and air cleaning (such as HEPA filters, air ionizers, or UV lights) to achieve equivalent clean airflow requirements and be cost effective and operate effectively and safely.

• Planning and Commissioning – Provides assessment and planning requirements for being ready for the times when there is an event with increased disease-causing pathogen transmissions. The standard has a building readiness plan, that documents procedure for assessing existing or new HVAC systems to determine if they are working properly and attributing to the equivalent clean air delivered to spaces.

The minimum ventilation requirements are those as published in Standards 62.1, 62.2, and 170. Also, a minimum filtration requirement is set for MERV A-11.