A variety of contaminants typically in gaseous form are found in the air processed by the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment. The concentration of these contaminants varies vastly depending upon the building use and other environmental factors. ASHRAE Standard 62.1 Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality defines three different types of procedures to provide Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) that is acceptable to human occupants and minimizes the adverse health effects.

Out of the three procedures in ASHRAE standard 62.1, Indoor Air Quality Procedure (IAQP) permits cleaned indoor air to offset for a portion of the required outside air. While following the IAQP path of compliance, the determination of the effectiveness of the air cleaning system is vital. Following are the go-to standards/validation tags to determine the effectiveness of the air cleaning system:

ASHRAE Standard 145.2 prescribes a full-scale laboratory test method for measuring the performance of in-duct sorptive media gas-phase air-cleaning devices. In this context, “sorptive media” are defined as the active agent of the air cleaner, whether granular or sheet or pleated, that operate by adsorbing and/or chemically reacting with contaminant gases.

This test is conducted under steady-state conditions at elevated gas challenge concentrations (relative to ventilation applications) and, therefore, used to compare devices rather than directly predict performance in any particular application.

ASHRAE Standard 52.2 describes a method of laboratory testing to measure the performance of general ventilation air-cleaning devices. This standard also establishes performance specifications for the equipment required to conduct the tests, defines methods of calculating and reporting the results obtained from the test data, and establishes a minimum efficiency reporting system that can be applied to air-cleaning devices covered by this standard.

UL 2998 is an environmental claim validation number created by Underwriters Laboratory (UL) that signifies that a product emits zero ozone. Qualifying zero ozone emission products must demonstrate they emit less than the maximum ozone concentration limit of 0.005 ppm (5 ppb) which is below the quantifiable level for ozone testing.

Ozone-producing devices cannot be visibly detected and will appear similar to zero-ozone versions. Prior to UL 2998 being established as a voluntary test and validation procedure for air treatment manufacturers, contractors and wholesalers had no resources or standard methods of test for identifying true zero ozone UV disinfection air treatment systems.