reset air quality standard - real estate - core & shell
What is a healthy building?
A healthy building definition is important to establish first and, for us, a building can only be considered “healthy” if it has a proven, positive impact on the mental & physical health of its occupants, whilst also doing no harm to the environment. We simply cannot accept that a building is good for People but harmful to the Planet, we must combine the two.
Imagine a people-focused building designed for maximum wellbeing benefits that also had a detrimental effect on the planet around it. The cross-over between green building concepts and healthy building concepts is obvious.
The rise of the healthy building movement over the past decade provides a new lens through which businesses can assess their performance and we are proud to be able to play a part in this process.
See our 9-point guide to healthy buildings here.
What is a smart building?
‘Smart’ is now right up there alongside ‘healthy’ and ‘green’ when it comes to desirable characteristics of a modern building.
We need data and information in order to monitor and optimize a building’s performance; ultimately ‘smart’ in this sense is effectively about ‘high performance’ buildings that are digitally connected with smart technology built in.
The leading smart building standard / certification for us is currently WiredScore, check them out here. They define a smart building by these four factors:
an inspirational experience
a sustainable building
a cost-efficient building
one that is future-proof by design
What is Indoor Air Quality in a healthy building?
Indoor pollutants such as CO2 have a negative impact on cognitive function and performance. the best solution is source control - nipping the problem in the bud, by not bringing harmful materials into the space that carry chemicals, VOCs or off-gases.
For that, we need building materials and fit-out materials that disclose their chemical ingredients, ideally with a healthy product accreditation to back up their claims.
One of the main culprits in this sense are Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) or chemicals that off-gas at ambient temperature from building materials such as particle board, glues, paints and carpet backing.
Particulate Matter PM2.5 and PM10 are made up of dust and synthetic materials decomposing around us from furniture, fabrics and so on.
For RESET, Carbon Monoxide is only relevant for projects where combustion is present. As reference, CO reduces the amount of oxygen transported in the bloodstream, making it potentially lethal.
Sensor technology cannot cover every pollutant, other air quality sensors do exist but they are prohibitively expensive, so as the market for high-grade sensors steadily democratizes over coming years, new pollutants will be incorporated into the standard.
What is RESET for smart and healthy buildings?
RESET stands for “Regenerative, ecological, social and economic targets”. It is a healthy building standard and certification.
The company was started by architects in Shanghai in 2001 adopting an eastern perspective based on a 5000 year history of health and regeneration, rather than the explicitly green / sustainable approach promoted in the west.
Unlike other green building or healthy building standards, such as LEED, WELL or FITWEL, RESET AIR does not insist on any set, prescribed paths towards achieving high quality indoor air results.
Their approach is simply to leave the door open to innovation, how each project gets there is up to the project team. It is the destination that matters most in this instance, RESET do not concern themselves with prescribing the journey.
In their terms, this is a biomimetic approach, that takes its inspiration from nature and the biosphere’s 3.8 billion year history. They talk our language in other words!
What is the RESET Air for Core & Shell indoor air quality standard?
You’ll find that RESET AIR for Core & Shell, whether for new or existing buildings, is basically all about ongoing monitoring and analysis of high quality indoor air quality data, delivered to the RESET cloud via a network of professionally installed, pre-approved air quality monitors.
We are concerned primarily with particulate matter (PM2.5), Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) in the outdoor air and the supply air including recirculated air that affects the building in question.
The data will be communicated back to building occupants as a way to raise awareness about this important healthy building theme, that has never been more relevant than in the post-Covid world.
Nota Bene: the intent here is different to that of RESET Air Commercial Interiors; in this case we are not focused on the quality of ‘mixed air’ that occupants inhale inside the building, for example in office spaces or communal areas.
Again, we are concerned exclusively with the quality of the air being delivered through the building’s HVAC system.
What affects the air quality of air in an HVAC system?
Clearly there is a world of difference between a remote coastal or countryside building and one in the middle of a megalopolis such as Shanghai.
Factors to consider here are location as well as a building’s orientation, the general climate, the age of the structure and HVAC system equipment, use type, and zoning calculations.
Daily averages are calculated based on hours of occupancy and international standards for Indoor Air Quality (‘IAQ’).
Qualifying projects must remain within these limits for a full three months in order to be certified, although there are a certification statuses available before then too (see separate article here on that).
Particular Matter / PM2.5: Less than 12 μg/m3 (75% reduction. NB: When outdoor PM2.5 is ≤48μg/m3, indoor levels can be no more than 12μg/m3. When outdoor PM2.5 is >48μg/m3, filtration at the level of the air handling unit must remove 75% of PM2.5 at a minimum.
Total Volatile Organic Compound / TVOC: less than 400 μg/m3
Carbon Dioxide / CO2: less than 800 ppm
Temperature: Monitored only as this impacts PM2.5 and TVOC
Relative Humidity: Monitored only as this impacts PM2.5 and TVOC
What are the air quality Data Provider requirements?
Data is collected and transferred to te RESET Assessment Cloud online. For this reason projects have to use certified RESET Air Accredited Data Providers that connect to the RESET Assessment Cloud.
This may sound complicated but it isn’t really as some air quality monitor manufacturers such as Awair are also accredited data providers, so you deal with both steps in one purchase effectively.
Data is to be communicated to building occupants on an hourly basis, perhaps via a digital display in reception, a smartphone app or webpage. RESET want this information to be as visible as possible, not hidden away and hard to find!
What air quality monitors are accepted by RESET AIR?
Direct read or hand-held instruments may be good for a walk-through survey or in detecting a specific pollutant but they have been deemed unsuitable for RESET as the standard requires high quality and constant air quality data in order to detect trends and patterns over time in a specific, fixed location. A lab test is good for a deep-dive but will only reflect a specific moment in time.
RESET provides standards for the deployment, location and installation of monitors that have been classified as Grade A (reference grade) or Grade B (commercial grade) only, excluding the increasingly common consumer Grade C.
It is RESET APs (accredited professionals) that are responsible for the monitor deployment plan, RESET then acts as the neutral stakeholder capturing data in the cloud.
As all monitors will gradually drift over time and need to be cleaned / recalibrated, the occasional follow-up site visit is required to inspect the monitors, again by a RESET Accredited Professional.
In order to certify for RESET Air for Core & Shell, projects need to demonstrate the mechanical (HVAC) system delivers air to occupants in line with the performance targets. For this to happen, we need a baseline established via outdoor air quality monitoring.
Indoor air quality monitors are then “paired” with the outdoor air monitors and the aggregated data can compared. This is the crux of the Core & Shell standard. Understanding this point is fundamental.
How do air quality monitors need to be installed for RESET AIR Core & Shell?
RESET Air accredited monitors that report PM2.5, CO2, Temperature and Relative Humidity need to be positioned within 5 metres / 16 ft of an air intake in a location that is pre-filtration and pre-mixing. Read that line again, it is really important!
If a building has 10 stories or less and one air intake, it only needs one outdoor monitor. That same building with more than one air take, needs still just one monitor but located wherever the air quality is deemed to be worst.
Taller buildings with a single air intake again need just one outdoor air monitor but if it has multiple air intakes then the monitor must be positioned at the highest air intake (or centrally if they are all on the same level).
Indoor monitor deployment meanwhile are based on a project’s total air volume. Mechanical systems that are not designed with constant air volume must calculate air volume based on the highest capacity airflow possible in the system.
To achieve Core & Shell certification a minimum of 30% of total air volume must be monitored.
These indoor monitors need to cover the usual suspects of PM2.5, TVOC, CO2, relative humidity and temperature.
Monitors should be installed post-mixing, post-filtration (or simply post-filtration if there is no mixing in the HVAC system in question). They should also be installed prior to dampers that limit airflow to a duct. The outdoor monitors have to be paired with an indoor monitor, this is essential.
Thee are the steps a RESET accredited professional will follow:
define project boundary
deploy outdoor monitors
calculate total air volume
calculate 30% of total air volume
deploy and pair indoor monitor locations to outdoor monitors
deploy additional indoor monitors if necessary
Contact us to discuss your RESET air certification project or other indoor air quality queries.