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Air Changes per Hour (ACH) Calculator

A room with "n air changes per hour" (ACH = n) replaces its entire air volume n times every 60 minutes. Enter L × W × H (in metres or feet), pick a preset or type a custom ACH, and the tool immediately returns the required ventilation airflow — perfect for sizing bathroom extract fans, kitchen hoods, ERV supply rates or checking whether a HEPA purifier's CADR is enough for the room.

Typical-room ACH (ASHRAE 62.1)

Room volume

50 m³

1,766 ft³

Required airflow

176.6

CFM

Required airflow

300

m³/h

Required airflow

83.3

L/s

Sizes extract fans, supply diffusers and air purifiers. Formula: airflow = volume × ACH.

Formula

Q (m³/h) = volume V (m³) × ACH Q (CFM) = volume V (ft³) × ACH ÷ 60 Q (L/s) = Q (m³/h) × 1000 ⁄ 3600

Frequently asked

What is the difference between ACH and CFM — which should I spec?

ACH is a ratio — "n room volumes per hour" — while CFM is an absolute flow rate. The two are just different views of the same number: CFM = room volume (ft³) × ACH ÷ 60. Equipment data sheets quote CFM or L/s because that's what sizes the fan; building codes and design intent typically use ACH because it scales with room size and is easy to compare across rooms. Standard workflow: (1) pick an ACH from the use-case (e.g. 8–10 ACH for a bathroom); (2) measure the room volume; (3) convert to CFM and select equipment. A common spec line reads "Provide 100 CFM extract fan (≥ 8 ACH for a 750 ft³ bathroom)" — quote both so future occupants don't forget to re-derive when the room layout changes.

Post-COVID guidance recommends "≥ 6 ACH" for offices — where does that number come from?

Three lines of evidence converge on it. (1) The Wells–Riley airborne-infection model shows that going from 1 to 6 ACH cuts secondary infection risk to about one-sixth, with diminishing returns above ~12 ACH. (2) ASHRAE's Epidemic Task Force (2020), the CDC's "Ventilation in Buildings" guidance (2021) and the Lancet COVID-19 Commission (2022) all converge on 6 ACH as an acceptable baseline — roughly ASHRAE 62.1 office ventilation plus a COVID buffer. (3) Harvard's Healthy Buildings team (Allen et al. 2021) recommends 9 ACH plus MERV-13 filtration for schools, reducing single-encounter odds ratios to ~0.25. In practice you can hit the target by adding HEPA portable purifiers — a unit delivering CADR equivalent to ~3 ACH of the room turns a 3 ACH building space into ~6 effective ACH.

How do I match an air purifier's CADR rating to a target ACH?

CADR (Clean Air Delivery Rate, defined by AHAM AC-1 (2020)) is the purifier's effective clean-air output in CFM or m³/h. To hit a target of N ACH: CADR (CFM) = N × room volume (ft³) ÷ 60, or CADR (m³/h) = N × room volume (m³). Example: a 30 m² × 2.5 m living room (75 m³) at 5 ACH needs CADR ≥ 5 × 75 = 375 m³/h (≈ 220 CFM). Three caveats: (1) CADR is reported separately for smoke, dust and pollen — use the figure for the pollutant you care about; (2) the rated CADR is usually the Turbo setting (often 50–60 dB(A)) — design with the mid-speed value if occupants will run it quietly; (3) baseline ventilation and HVAC mixing add to the effective ACH, so a CO₂ tracer test is the cleanest way to confirm the delivered rate.

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