State Codes vs AIA Guidelines 2

[edtpro]

I am still new to this forum and have a newbie question. Our company does environmental monitoring in medical facilities that sometimes takes required ventilation rates into account. We've been going by the "AIA Guidelines for Healthcare..." as a general guide, but realize some facilities are bound to (perhaps) less or more stringent standards through a state code.

So, my question is...is there a good source to find state codes past and present in one place? Digital copies? I've looked at some state codes, but they don't always seem to refer to ambulatory surgery centers and/or hospitals which have very specific ventilation guidelines. Any advice on how to access that specific info?

Do any of you do ventilation work in medical facilities? If so, what standard do you find yourself going by?

Thanks for any help.

 

[mauricestoker]

ASHRAE 55, 62.1 and 170 cover the majority where I am at. There are a few oddballs, such as for pharmacy and labs.

 

[cdxx139]

I have always had the same question. I recently did an outpatient medical center than followed AIA, so for ventilation, I setup a spreadsheet that did both state ventilation code and AIA ventilation guideline, and took the worst case. My thinking was that I would have to meet both.

As far as getting all the state codes in one place. Not sure, I do use:

http://www.reedconstructiondata.com/building-codes/

to get a list of the latest state codes, but always double check against the state governmaent website to be sure.

knowledge is power

 

[edtpro]

Hey guys, thanks for the input.

cdxx139 - So, I've been to the Reed Construction site and looked up some codes. Let's say North Carolina. I can't seem to find where any of them address required ACH, etc for OR's. I must be missing something. Can you help out by pointing me to a specific title I might look under?

 

[cdxx139]

They dont require ACH, instead they require OA cfm per person. So for NC, you refer to the mechanical code IMC 2006. Under Ch 4 Ventilation it requires 30 cfm OA per person in an operating room (actually gotten from IMC 2003, I don't have a 2006 readily available).

Most codes are referring to the IBC family of codes these days, so once you by it, you will have the majority. Also my state provides a copy online at the government website.


I haven't found it anywhere that says the AIA trumps the ventilation requirement, so I use the worst case of the two(easily done in an excel spreadsheet)
Good Luck

knowledge is power