Ventilation Rates for a Dental Office

ASHRAE 62.1-2007 does provide some guidance for acceptable ventilation rates for these types of spaces outlined in NORMATIVE APPENDIX E VENTILATION RATES FOR HEALTH CARE FACILITIES: Table E-1. For a patient room, a minimum of 25 cfm/person at 10 people/1000sf, and for an operating room a minimum of 30 cfm/person at 20 people/1000sf. If ASHRAE 170 is to be used as an alternative compliance for LEED it must at least meet the minimum ventilation rates listed in 62.1 or be greater. This approach would also require an additional narrative describing the exceptional calculation methodology.

Hi Michael, I just want to be sure of one thing. It looks like Multi-Zone systems, you have the option of saying that not all zones the system serves are in the VRP calculation and then you have to manually enter the total floor area and populations the system serves as well as the average per-person and per-square foot OA cfm rates. Has it been ok to do that for LEED submissions? Have you ever gotten comments telling you to fill every room in? I am aware you have to go about filling every single room in when dealing with 100% OA units in the same spreadsheet.

You could show compliance with 'Energy simulation software is being used to determine required ventilation levels.' in which you would upload reports from the simulation software indicating the outdoor air provided for all the occupiable spaces. Otherwise the VRP Compliance Calculator or offline calculator such as the 62MZCalc must be used. Unfortunately, I have gotten comments that request all rooms/spaces to be included. I would recommend using the revised 62MZCalc which is now the Minimum Indoor Air Quality Performance Calculator found here: http://www.usgbc.org/resources/minimum-indoor-air-quality-performance-calculator