text: The ventilation rate, for commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) buildings, is normally expressed by the volumetric flow rate of outdoor air, introduced to the building.  The typical units used are cubic feet per minute (CFM) in the imperial system, or liters per second (L/s) in the metric system (even though cubic meter per second is the preferred unit for volumetric flow rate in the SI system of units).  The ventilation rate can also be expressed on a per person or per unit floor area basis, such as CFM/p or CFM/ft², or as air changes per hour (ACH).