Design Guidance for Education Facilities: Prioritization for Advanced Indoor Air Quality (Version 2.0)

Produced by ASHRAE’s Epidemic Task Force, this 46-page guide helps school facility professionals and design teams plan high-impact ventilation and filtration upgrades that both reduce airborne-disease transmission and improve everyday indoor air quality. Measures are organized into a three-tier priority matrix—Very High, High and Medium—so districts can match ambitions to budgets and building constraints. Very-high-priority steps include verifying outdoor-air rates meet or exceed ASHRAE 62.1, upgrading filters to at least MERV 13, eliminating bypass in filter racks, and targeting 4–6 equivalent air changes per hour in classrooms through HVAC or portable HEPA units. High-priority actions cover demand-controlled-ventilation reset, optimizing air distribution, adding dedicated outdoor-air systems and installing UV-C irradiation for coil or in-room disinfection. Medium-priority options address envelope tightening, humidity control, real-time CO₂/PM monitoring and advanced fault detection.
Each item lists expected IAQ benefit, cost range, energy impact and commissioning checks, allowing engineers and administrators to build phased retrofit plans or inform new-construction specs. Appendices supply example air-change calculations, HVAC schematics and performance-verification templates. By following this roadmap, schools can systematically create healthier, more resilient learning environments while balancing energy efficiency and long-term maintenance.