HVI Press Release

What Is HVI?

Indoor air pollution is recognized as the cause of many serious health problems. According to the American Lung Association's website, "poor indoor air quality can cause or contribute to the development of chronic respiratory diseases." The Home Ventilating Institute (HVI) is a nonprofit association whose mission it is to raise awareness of the need for good ventilation and serve consumers and members by advancing residential ventilation. HVI does this in a variety of ways, including providing certification of product performance for residential ventilating fans and air handling systems, providing consumer information, and participating in selected building code activities.

HVI was founded in 1955 by five ventilating products companies that were unsatisfied with the lack of good testing and certification programs. By 1962, all member companies' products had been tested and were using the HVI Ratings in catalogs and on products. Today, HVI represents a wide range of home ventilating products manufactured by companies throughout the world that produce the majority of residential ventilation products sold in North America. HVI develops test procedures and certification programs for airflow, sound levels, and energy performance for kitchen, bath, and indoor air quality fans and other residential air handling equipment. The Certified Rating Programs of HVI were created to provide a fair and creditable method for comparing ventilation performance of similar products. A random verification program ensures that those products still meet their original performance. All testing for certification and verification is performed at independent laboratories not affiliated with any manufacturer. Members of HVI include manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors of products that have been tested and certified according to HVI procedures.

The world's leading residential ventilation manufacturers ensure customer satisfaction with HVI Certified Performance Ratings available exclusively through the Home Ventilating Institute. For more information on HVI Certified Ventilation Performance, ventilation selection and design, indoor air quality and much more visit www.hvi.org.

With consumers more conscious than ever about their health, awareness of indoor air quality has been growing. Every home needs ventilation to protect the occupants and the house itself from unhealthy indoor pollutants that include both excess moisture and heat. Using uniformly applied testing procedures performed by independent laboratories, HVI tests, certifies, and publishes residential ventilation product ratings for airflow, sound and energy. This provides consumers, builders, installing contractors, building inspectors and others with valuable information when selecting residential ventilation products. "HVI was formed for various reasons, among them are offering customer assurance of product performance, increasing public awareness of the need for good ventilation, and assisting customers in choosing the proper ventilation products." said HVI Board of Directors member John Harper of JDH Consultants, LLC and NuTone Inc.

HVI Certified products have the actual certified airflow listed on the fan, not the manufacturers rating, because they have been independently tested according to industry-approved procedures. The HVI label on certified products allows consumers to make informed and confident choices. In addition, HVI Certification has been accepted and recognized as the method of performance assurance by many agencies, including the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, US Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, Energy Star, and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. It is required by the Canadian building code, as well as energy codes in several US states and the national residential ventilation standard, ASHRAE 62.2-2004.

A complete list of Certified products, manufacturers, and brand names can be found in the HVI Certified Home Ventilating Products Directory. The HVI Home Ventilation & Indoor Air Quality Guide offers essential information, design specifications, and tips about home ventilation. Both publications can be downloaded from the HVI website at www.hvi.org.

For more information, contact Michelle McNab at 1000 N. Rand Road, Suite 214, Wauconda, IL 60084. Telephone: 855.484.8368; fax: 847/526-3993. Visit the website at www.hvi.org.

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