ISO 16814:2008旨在规定表达适合人类居住的室内空气质量的方法，以允许室内空气质量的几个可接受的目标水平，这取决于当地的要求、限制和期望。 ISO 16814:2008适用于新建筑及其系统的设计以及现有建筑和系统的改造、主要关注人类居住者的室内环境、具有机械和自然通风任意组合的建筑、商业和机构建筑。 ISO 16814:2008不适用于住宅建筑、工业建筑和医院，尽管此类建筑中类似于商业建筑的部分被涵盖。 由于以下一个或多个不确定性来源，ISO 16814:2008的要求可能无法为所有建筑物中的所有人实现可接受的IAQ。带入建筑物的室外空气可能是不可接受的，或者可能没有得到充分的清洁。 室内空气有各种各样的来源和污染物。 有许多因素影响居住者对IAQ的感知和接受，如空气温度、湿度、噪音、气味、照明和心理压力。 人群中有一系列的易感性和偏好。

ISO 16814:2008 is intended to specify methods to express the quality of indoor air suitable for human occupancy, to allow several acceptable target levels of indoor air quality, depending on local requirements, constraints and expectations. ISO 16814:2008 applies to the design of new buildings and their systems and the retrofit of existing buildings and systems, indoor environments where the major concern is that of human occupants, buildings having any combination of mechanical and natural ventilation, commercial and institutional buildings. ISO 16814:2008 does not apply to residential buildings, industrial buildings and hospitals although those parts of such buildings that are similar to commercial buildings are covered. The requirements of ISO 16814:2008 might not achieve acceptable IAQ for all people in all buildings, due to one or more of the following sources of uncertainty.

• The outdoor air brought into the building can be unacceptable or might not be adequately cleaned.
• Indoor air has a wide diversity of sources and contaminants.
• There are many factors that affect occupant perception and acceptance of IAQ, such as air temperature, humidity, noise, odours, lighting and psychological stress.
• There is a range of susceptibility and preference in the population.