Title 24 Requirements for Daycare Centers
A daycare is decided by how its air is classified. Table 120.1-A makes rooms for children through age four Class 2 air, a step above a school classroom, and the sickroom Class 3, which limits what the systems serving them may share.
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Not a classroom, for air purposes
Table 120.1-A lists daycare (through age 4) separately from classrooms and classifies it differently: daycare rooms are Class 2 air, while classrooms for ages five and up are Class 1. Class 2 air may not be recirculated or transferred into Class 1 spaces. It may go to toilet rooms, and to other Class 2 or 3 spaces used for the same or a similar purpose.
The Compliance Manual reads that as a system serving Class 2 spaces not sharing an air handler with Class 1 spaces. A preschool wing on the same system as primary classrooms or the administration office is therefore a design problem rather than a detail. Class 1 spaces that are ancillary to the Class 2 rooms may be redesignated Class 2, which can be the cleaner answer.
The sickroom is stricter again
A daycare sickroom is Class 3. Its air may be recirculated only within the room and may not be transferred to any other space, beyond leakage of up to 5 per cent of outdoor air intake through an energy recovery device. Section 120.1(d)3 also names daycare sickrooms among the spaces that shall not install demand control ventilation, so their outdoor air cannot be turned down on a CO2 reading.
Head count sets the outdoor air
The table's default density for daycare is 14 people per 1,000 square feet, with an area rate of 0.15 cfm per square foot. At 15 cfm per person the occupant term is 0.21 cfm per square foot, so people govern rather than floor area. The expected number of occupants is the designer's figure or the table default, whichever is greater, so a centre planning for more children than the default designs for its own number.
Moving into someone else's building
Where a daycare takes space built for another use and the occupancy classification changes, Section 141.0 applies the requirements of the occupancy after the alteration. The previous tenant's compliance carries nothing forward, and the air classification above is assessed against the new use.
Lighting
Table 140.6-C has no daycare category; for an unlisted function area the code permits a reasonably equivalent type. Restrooms, classrooms and multipurpose rooms under 1,000 square feet need occupant sensing that switches lighting off within 20 minutes of vacancy.
Where to go deeper
A school with an early-years wing should read this alongside the school requirements, where general classrooms are Class 1. How the outdoor air quantity is calculated is covered under commercial ventilation.