This paper describes a field evaluation of ventilation guidelines written with house building contractors in mind. They are based on ASHRAE Standard 62-81. Before being finalized they were evaluated by having eight building contractors attempt to follow them. The houses were selected to represent a mixture of sizes of building firm, climatic zones, house types, gas and electric heating, and approaches to achieving satisfactory ventilation. Recirculating and outside air flows per room in the eight resulting ventilation systems were monitored and the performance was compared with that hoped for° ~ere were substantial differences. In particular, the study illustrated the difficulties of matching ventilation requirements with heating requirements in forced warm air systems. It also revealed weakness in the residential HVAC trades’ ability to cope with new technical criteria as well as with the guidelines themselves. Ways of dealing with the technical and organizational problems revealed by the study are addressed, including reference to the status of a Canadian standard for residential ventilation.

Units: SI