Use the Air Changes

Calculation to Determine Room

CFM
An air change is how many times the air enters and exits a room
from the HVAC system in one hour.
Rob 'Doc' Falke
MAR 24, 2016

Engineering room airflow may present a real challenge when

balancing an HVAC system. Most calculations only use the heat loss or
gain of a room to decide on required airflow and often don’t take into
consideration required room ventilation needs. Let’s take a look at
how an air change calculation may simplify this step in your air
balancing.

What is an Air Change?

An air change is how many times the air enters and exits a room from
the HVAC system in one hour. Or, how many times a room would fill
up with the air from the supply registers in sixty minutes.  

You can then compare the number of room air changes to the
Required Air Changes Table below. If it’s in the range, you can
proceed to design or balance the airflow and have an additional
assurance that you’re doing the right thing. If it’s way out of range,
you’d better take another look.

The Air Changes Formula

To calculate room air changes, measure the supply airflow into a

room, multiply the CFM times 60 minutes per hour. Then divide by
the volume of the room in cubic feet:
In plain English, we’re changing CFM into Cubic Feet per Hour (CFH).
Then we calculate the volume of the room by multiplying the room
height times the width times the length. Then we simply divide the
CFH by the volume of the room.

Here’s an example of how a full formula works:

Now, compare 7.5 air changes per hour to the required air changes for
that type of room on the Air Changes per Hour Table below. If it’s a
lunch or break room that requires 7-8 air changes per hour, you’re
right on target. If it’s a bar that needs 15-20 air changes per hour, it’s
time to reconsider.

 
 

Room CFM Formula

Let’s look at this engineering formula differently. For example, what if

the airflow is unknown and you need to calculate the required CFM for
a room? Here is a four-step process on how to calculate the room
CFM:

Step One – Use the above Air Changes per Hour Table to identify the
required air changes needed for the use of the room. Let’s say it’s a
conference room requiring 10 air changes per hour.

Step Two - Calculate the volume of the room (L’xW’xH’).

Step Three - Multiply the volume of the room by the required room air
changes.

Step Four Divide the answer by 60 minutes per Hour to find the
required room CFM:

Here’s an example of how to work the formula:

When designing or balancing a system requiring additional airflow for

ventilation purposes, remember this room will normally demand
constant fan operation when occupied. This may present a problem
for other rooms on the same zone, so take that into consideration.
Many of these rooms may require a significant amount of outdoor air.
The BTU content of this air has to be included in the heat gain or heat
loss of the building when determining the size of the heating and
cooling equipment.

Practice these calculations several times in the shop or office. Then do

the calculations in the field several times over the next week to check
airflow in rooms with uncommon ventilation requirements. Study the
Air Changes per Hour Table to become familiar with the rooms that
need more ventilation than the heating or cooling load requires.

Rob “Doc” Falke serves the industry as president of National

Comfort Institute, an HVAC-based training company and
membership organization. If you're an HVAC contractor or
technician interested in a free Air Changes Calculation
Procedure, contact Doc at robf@ncihvac.com or call him at 800-633-
7058. Go to NCI’s website at nationalcomfortinstitute.com for free
information, articles, and downloads.
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Latest Comments

Posted by sguttmann
May 27th, 2021 7:38pm
I am concerned that this article fundamentally misses the mark when it comes to
determining how much air should be delivered to any space. There are typically
three criteria that need to be met when determining air quantities:
(1) providing adequate heating and cooling to meet interior and exterior loads in a
space;
(2) providing Code minimum (or more) fresh air ventilation to a space for breathing
(i.e. preventing a build-up of CO2 or other indoor pollutants, and using ASHRAE 62.1
or other applicable Codes/Standards); and
(3) providing adequate dilution of hazardous indoor pollutants (usually a concern
only in "process" spaces such as laboratories, and in theory the goal of ASHRAE
62.1 as well).
Only one of these three criteria (#3) is air change driven, and systems serving these
types of spaces typically use 100% outside air. Criteria #1 and #2 are not air change
driven, and rules of thumb (while appropriate for initial capacity projections) should
never be used for a final design. The most fundamental omission in this article is that
without knowing the percentage of outdoor air being brought in through the air
handling system, air changes per hour can never properly estimate whether Code
minimum ventilation is being satisfied. I suggest to the readers of this article that
applying these rules of thumb would be a negligent act.
Posted by rio.tiampong
Oct 12th, 2020 2:51pm
Is improper airchange and operation of FAHU can cause moisture and condensation
inside the building ??? Please say something..
Posted by simon_ejom
Aug 27th, 2020 8:26am
We experience problem of pressure balancing (DP) and temperature we are using
AHUS for cooling. any advise on how to handle this problem thanks
Posted by hail46
Apr 7th, 2018 3:18pm
I think someone tried to stealyour article...https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/use-air-
changes-calculation-determine-room-cfm-soma-sundaram
Posted by khalidalpheniqllc
Feb 26th, 2017 9:55pm
Dear Mr. Rob ,

First of all i would like to thanks for your kind information . I have a query related to
Heat load calculation , like when we are doing heat load calculation for kitchen is it
necessary to consider ACH for kitchen . If yes then , what would be the ACH for the
residential kitchen .