ASHRAE 62.2 (Residential Ventilation Standard)

The national standard for how much fresh air a home needs — the spec a whole-house ventilation install is sized to.

Numbers that matter

What it sets
Minimum whole-house mechanical ventilation rate
IP formula
CFM = 0.01 × floor area (ft²) + 7.5 × (bedrooms + 1)
Example
2,000 ft², 3-bed → 20 + 30 = ~50 CFM continuous
Publisher
ASHRAE (ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2)

ASHRAE 62.2 is the consensus standard for ventilation and acceptable indoor air quality in low-rise residential buildings. It answers a question modern, tightly built homes can't ignore: how much outdoor air does a house actually need? Older, leaky houses ventilated themselves through gaps; today's air-sealed homes often don't, which is why mechanical ventilation has become part of good IAQ design.

The standard's core is a whole-house airflow target. In US units the required continuous rate is roughly 0.01 × the conditioned floor area in square feet, plus 7.5 CFM for each bedroom plus one. A 2,000-square-foot, three-bedroom home works out to about 50 CFM of continuous fresh air. The standard also covers local exhaust — bath and kitchen fans — and how intermittent fans count toward the total.

You won't size your own system, but 62.2 gives you a way to judge a quote. A contractor proposing an ERV or HRV or a supply-ventilation setup should be able to state the CFM target they're hitting and why. A bid that adds a ventilator with no airflow number behind it is guessing. The standard is what turns 'fresh air' from a sales word into a measurable design figure.

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Generated: 2026-06-22 · Last reviewed: 2026-06-22