scholarly journals Indoor air quality in a preschool

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 041-048
Author(s):  
Marek Telejko

The article presents the results of indoor air quality (IAQ) assessment in four local preschools. The natural ventilation system was used in the buildings. Outdoor air was supplied to the premises through a leak in the external walls and air intakes were of maximum efficiency of 30 m3/h. Parameters describing IAQ were measured, such as: temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide concentration. Two series of studies were performed in each preschool. On the basis of the survey, it can be clearly stated that the indoor air quality in preschools is considered to be very low very low. All the analyzed parameters describing the quality do not meet the current legal requirements. Reported values of CO2 concentration exceeded three times the value set of the recommended maximum.

Author(s):  
Marek Telejko ◽  
Ewa Zender-Swiercz

Most primary school buildings in Poland rely on natural ventilation. This fact is attributed to the age of these buildings constructed more than dozen or even several tens of years ago. Few of them were fitted with a mechanical ventilation system allowing for the adjustment of microclimate parameters. The national requirements for gravity ventilation provide general guidelines, specifying strict description only for the airtightness of windows and doors and the minimum airflow to be supplied to the rooms. The minimum airflow supplied is independent of the number of occupants and purpose of the room. Low indoor air quality (IAQ) can impact occupants’ health and lead to poor productivity or low academic performance. Therefore the provision of good IAQ in classrooms and laboratories is very important. This paper presents the results of the investigation devoted to the quality of indoor air in classrooms of selected Polish primary school. Six primary school in a town with a population of 200 000 inhabitants were involved in the investigations. The participating school buildings were built between 1976 and 1994 and had gravity ventilation systems. The variability of basic IAQ parameters, i.e., temperature, relative humidity and carbon dioxide level, was analysed and the assessment of the classrooms in terms of microbiological purity was performed. The outcomes confirmed the low quality of the indoor air in these buildings. The maximum value of CO2 concentration amounted to more than 4000 ppm. Certain modifications aimed at improving IAQ were proposed during the investigations. Two solutions were implemented. The results of this study indicate that the proposed solution offers the potential to improve IAQ within classrooms.


Proceedings ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (20) ◽  
pp. 1309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Rodero ◽  
Dorota Anna Krawczyk

Carbon dioxide concentration is an important parameter to know Indoor Air Quality of a building. One of the most important sources of CO2 in poor ventilated building is human activity. This work presents a method for experimental determination of human CO2 generation rate based on measuring of time evolution of indoor CO2 concentration. The method is applied to 5 rooms of an educational building from Bialystok (Poland). Similar carbon dioxide gains were obtained in all rooms, around 0.0046 L/s, which correspond to theoretical CO2 generation rates of a sedentary activity for persons, males and females, between 21–30 years old, characteristics of occupants of analyzed rooms.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Cezary Kulis ◽  
Jarosław Müller

The aim of the research was to design and validate the prototype of a device developed to improve the quality of indoor air by supporting the natural ventilation in building. A CO2 sensor and thermo-hygrometer were used to measure the physical parameters of the indoor air. The developed device is based on the Raspberry Pi single-board-computer (SBC) and optical sensors. The prototype casing was made using 3D printing technology. The software was written using the Python 2.7 programming language. The key algorithm of control uses fuzzy logic. The effectiveness of the developed device has been confirmed. The use of the device enabled improvement of the indoor air quality. The presented device may be a solution to improve the indoor air quality by supporting the ventilation system.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 774-793
Author(s):  
Nur Baitul Izati Rasli ◽  
Nor Azam Ramli ◽  
Mohd Rodzi Ismail

This study observed the influence of different ventilation, indoor and outdoor activities (i.e., cooking, praying, sweeping, gathering, and exhaust from motorcycle) between a bungalow house (i.e., stack and cross ventilation applications) and a terrace house (i.e., one-sided ventilation application). We appraised the indoor air quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort. We monitored the indoor air contaminants (i.e., TVOC, CO, CH2O, PM10, O3, and CO2) and specific physical parameters (i.e., T, RH, and AS) for four days in the morning (i.e., 6.00 a.m. – 9.00 a.m.), morning-evening (i.e., 11.00 a.m. – 2.00 p.m.), and evening-night (i.e., 5.00 p.m. – 8.00 p.m.) sessions. The results found that cooking activities are the major activities that contributed to the increase of the TVOC, CO, PM10, O3, and CO2 concentrations in the bungalow and terrace houses. However, IAQ exceeded the Industry Code of Practice on IAQ (ICOP) limit in the terrace house. The bungalow house applies stack and cross ventilation, double area, and a long pathway of indoor air contaminants movements. Besides that, the results indicated that cooking activities worsen the ventilation system because CO2 exceeded the ICOP limit on Day 2 at 74.1 % (evening-night session) and Day 3 at 13.2 % (morning session), 11% (morning-evening session), and 50.1 % (evening-night session). Moreover, the combination of mechanical (i.e., opened all fans) and natural ventilation (i.e., opened all doors, windows, and fans) is the best application in the house without a cooking ventilator with lower indoor air movement. Furthermore, the temperatures exceeding the ICOP limit of 23-26 °C for both bungalow and terrace houses could be lower indoor air movement, which is less than the ICOP limit of 0.15-0.5 m/s and high outdoor air temperature. Therefore, it is prudent to have an efficient ventilation system for acceptable indoor air quality and thermal comfort in the family house.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 915-924
Author(s):  
Mladen Tomic ◽  
Biljana Milutinovic ◽  
Predrag Zivkovic ◽  
Petar Djekic ◽  
Aleksandra Boricic

With the rapid development of information technology equipment and its use in the teaching and learning activities, the working environment (especially indoor air quality) in which students and pupils spend a great deal of time in educational institutions has been changing. Therefore, special attention must be paid to indoor air quality and comfort. It is of great importance to maintain indoor air quality in an object, such as information technology classrooms, where a large number of students spend long periods of time. Poor indoor environment can negatively affect scholarly performances and cause discomfort and poor work performance. The problem of indoor air quality in educational institutions can be more serious than in other types of objects, because of the higher concentration of students and information technology equipment. This paper analyzes the changes in air quality in an information technology classrooms, when occupied with students, for the period from March to April. The changes of indoor air temperature, relative humidity, and carbon dioxide concentration are monitored in the classroom, as well as outdoor temperature and relative humidity. Several cases are studied: the classroom with closed windows and doors (closed classroom), the classroom with natural ventilation, the classroom cooled with a split system (cooled classroom). Responses of students are followed for each case. The analysis is performed based on the measurement results and numerical simulations using the computational fluid dynamics package, and measures are proposed to improve the indoor air quality in the considered classroom.


Author(s):  
Ion-Costinel Mareș ◽  
Tiberiu Catalina ◽  
Marian-Andrei Istrate ◽  
Alexandra Cucoș ◽  
Tiberius Dicu ◽  
...  

The purpose of this article is the assessment of energy efficiency and indoor air quality for a single-family house located in Cluj-Napoca County, Romania. The studied house is meant to be an energy-efficient building with thermal insulation, low U-value windows, and a high efficiency boiler. Increasing the energy efficiency of the house leads to lower indoor air quality, due to lack of natural ventilation. As the experimental campaign regarding indoor air quality revealed, there is a need to find a balance between energy consumption and the quality of the indoor air. To achieve superior indoor air quality, the proposed mitigation systems (decentralized mechanical ventilation with heat recovery combined with a minimally invasive active sub-slab depressurization) have been installed to reduce the high radon level in the dwelling, achieving an energy reduction loss of up to 86%, compared to the traditional natural ventilation of the house. The sub-slab depressurization system was installed in the room with the highest radon level, while the local ventilation system with heat recovery has been installed in the exterior walls of the house. The results have shown significant improvement in the level of radon decreasing the average concentration from 425 to 70 Bq/m 3, respectively the carbon dioxide average of the measurements being around 760 ppm. The thermal comfort improves significantly also, by stabilizing the indoor temperature at 21 °C, without any important fluctuations. The installation of this system has led to higher indoor air quality, with low energy costs and significant energy savings compared to conventional ventilation (by opening windows).


2019 ◽  
Vol 111 ◽  
pp. 01020
Author(s):  
Ko Murakami ◽  
Kenta Sakai ◽  
Daisuke Nakamura ◽  
Haruno Ishikawa ◽  
Sayana Tsushima ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual indoor air quality within two elementary schools with different types of ventilation methods, and to obtain data pertaining to the emission of bioeffluents within the schools. Field surveys on indoor air quality were conducted at two public elementary schools in Tokyo, both equipped with air-conditioning systems. School-A was also equipped with a heat-exchange ventilation system, while School-B did not have a ventilation system. Results of the study revealed that the target ventilation volume for the heat-exchange ventilation system in School-A was not achieved, indoor air quality in School-B was better in relatively cool conditions than School-A because of the habit of opening windows attached, there was a positive correlation between nonanal and decanal and CO2 concentration in summer, and the concentration of bioeffluents nonanal and decanal may be higher at high temperatures even under the same level of ventilation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 246 ◽  
pp. 01001
Author(s):  
Vegard Heide ◽  
Silje Skyttern ◽  
Laurent Georges

The objective of this work is to investigate the indoor environment in bedrooms ventilated by window opening during night-time. How window opening behaviour affects indoor air quality (IAQ), and how window opening behaviour and IAQ is influenced by external factors, are important questions. The context is renovation of detached wooden houses in Norway. To motivate building owners to renovate their ventilation system, it is important to know the typical indoor environment in bedrooms of existing buildings with natural ventilation. Ten bedrooms in six case houses were investigated by measuring temperature, relative humidity, CO2, particulate matter, formaldehyde and TVOC. The window opening angle was also logged with an accelerometer. The measurements were conducted over 2 to 3 weeks, during March and April. The dwellings were renovated single-family and terraced houses from 1950 – 80, in Trondheim. All the bedrooms had natural ventilation, and the occupants stated they used to open bedroom windows at night. Participants answered a questionnaire about motivations and habits regarding window opening. The most common reason given for not opening was low outdoor temperatures. The window opening behaviour was both predictable and continuous. Windows were open every night in most of the bedrooms, and most of the windows were opened to the same position every night. High CO2 levels during night were found in two bedrooms. In the other bedrooms, the CO2 concentration was satisfying during night-time, although higher concentrations were found in some bedrooms during daytime. Finally, indoor temperature measurements confirmed that many occupants prefer a low bedroom temperature.


2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 007-013
Author(s):  
Dorota Koruba ◽  
Ewa Zender Świercz ◽  
Jerzy Piotrowski ◽  
Łukasz Orman ◽  
Marek Telejko

The article demonstrates the results of research on the indoor air quality (IAQ) in one of chosen preschools. In such facilities, the standard solution is a system of natural ventilation. Only a small percentage of such buildings is equipped with a mechanical ventilation system with adjustable parameters of the microclimate. The article presents the results of indoor air quality in the local preschool located in Kielce. In the present facility natural ventilation system was used. Preliminary studies confirmed the poor quality of indoor air in a subjected building. During the study, two improvements aimed at improving air quality were proposed. The first improvement was to increase the supply air stream. The second one concerned the installation of equipment for the treatment of indoor air. The results indicate that under certain guidelines it is possible to improve indoor air quality. As an indicator of indoor air quality, concentration of carbon dioxide was adopted. In addition, microbiological tests were performed indoors.


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