Guidelines for national indoor environmental quality requirements

Summary of key guidelines for national indoor environmental quality regulatory requirements:

• Minimum requirements for indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting, and acoustic are to be set in the regulation for new buildings and major renovations;
• Indoor air quality, ventilation and thermal comfort requirements can be specified separately for residential and non-residential buildings;
• In non-residential occupied buildings, ventilation capacity must be 7 L/s per person plus 0.7 L/s per m² floor area, or alternatively CO₂ concentrations of 900-1200 ppm, depending on occupant density, must be fulfilled;
• In residential buildings an average ventilation capacity of a whole residence shall be 0.42 L/s per m² floor area and 7 L/s supply air per person which are recommended to be supported with room-based ventilation rate requirements;
• Room temperature ranges in residential and non-residential buildings must be specified for heating and cooling seasons;
• Establishing a requirement on the lower limit of relative humidity in cold climates and upper limit in southern humid climates can be considered;
• Requirements shall be specified so that it is possible to assess the compliance based on monitoring, measurements or simulations, therefore it is important to specify acceptable deviations;
• Application of measuring and control devices for the monitoring and regulation of indoor environmental quality shall be required at relevant unit level;
• Conducting continuous measurement of main indoor environmental quality indicators shall be required from continuously occupied spaces;
• It is good to support regulatory requirements with technical guidelines for the design and operation.

Source: "Proposed modifications and guidelines for implementation of Article 11a ‘Indoorenvironmental quality’ in EPBD draft". Common proposal by REHVA, Nordic Ventilation Group and EUROVENT. June 19, 2023