An Attempt to Improve Air Quality in Primary Schools

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.

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 5958
Author(s):  
Fusheng Ma ◽  
Changhong Zhan ◽  
Xiaoyang Xu ◽  
Guanghao Li

In Northeast China, most classrooms in primary and secondary schools still use natural ventilation during cold days in winter. This study investigated the thermal comfort and the perceived air quality of children in primary schools in severe cold regions in China. Field measurements were conducted in four typical primary classrooms in two naturally ventilated teaching buildings in the winter of 2016 in the provincial city of Shenyang. Six field surveys were distributed to 141 primary students aged 8 to 11, and 835 valid questionnaires were collected. The results showed that the indoor temperature and the daily mean CO2 concentrations of the primary school classrooms ranged from 17.06 to 24.29 °C and from 1701 to 3959 ppm, respectively. The thermal neutral temperature of the primary school students was 18.5 °C, and the 90% thermal comfort temperature ranged from 17.3 to 20.1 °C. Children were able to respond to changes in indoor air quality, but there was no significant correlation between the children’s perceptions of air quality and the carbon dioxide levels in the classroom. In general, children have a lower comfort temperature than adults. In addition, children are more sensitive to temperature changes during the heating season than adults. Due to differences in thermal sensation between children and adults, the current thermal comfort standard based on adult data is not applicable to primary school buildings and children. The air quality evaluation during heating season indicates that it is necessary to add indoor air environment monitoring instruments and purification equipment to the naturally ventilated classrooms. At present and in the future, more research based on children’s data is needed to solve the indoor air environment problems in primary school buildings.


2012 ◽  
Vol 518-523 ◽  
pp. 4435-4438
Author(s):  
Da Hua Jiang ◽  
Zhi Hua Wang ◽  
Fa En Shi ◽  
Ru Shan Ren

It is of great importance to study the impact of the cooking generated contaminants on the indoor air quality in the kitchen since cooking is regarded as the main source of indoor contaminants. This study aims investigate and analysis the indoor air quality of kitchen with using CFD numerical analysis method via the velocity, temperature, humidity CO2 concentration .It is concluded that The temperature distribution are large difference in the kitchen and the maximum value is up to 324K on the work area which near the cooking ,and the CO2 concentration which is close to the stove is 1420ppm,1370ppm, 1470ppm respectively, and it is more than the acceptance criteria (CO2<1000ppm) 42%,37% and 47% respectively. It is serious impact on the staff's physical health.


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.


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.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4139
Author(s):  
Muriel Diaz ◽  
Mario Cools ◽  
Maureen Trebilcock ◽  
Beatriz Piderit-Moreno ◽  
Shady Attia

Between the ages of 6 and 18, children spend between 30 and 42 h a week at school, mostly indoors, where indoor environmental quality is usually deficient and does not favor learning. The difficulty of delivering indoor air quality (IAQ) in learning facilities is related to high occupancy rates and low interaction levels with windows. In non-industrialized countries, as in the cases presented, most classrooms have no mechanical ventilation, due to energy poverty and lack of normative requirements. This fact heavily impacts the indoor air quality and students’ learning outcomes. The aim of the paper is to identify the factors that determine acceptable CO2 concentrations. Therefore, it studies air quality in free-running and naturally ventilated primary schools in Chile, aiming to identify the impact of contextual, occupant, and building design factors, using CO2 concentration as a proxy for IAQ. The monitoring of CO2, temperature, and humidity revealed that indoor air CO2 concentration is above 1400 ppm most of the time, with peaks of 5000 ppm during the day, especially in winter. The statistical analysis indicates that CO2 is dependent on climate, seasonality, and indoor temperature, while it is independent of outside temperature in heated classrooms. The odds of having acceptable concentrations of CO2 are bigger when indoor temperatures are high, and there is a need to ventilate for cooling.


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.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Gładyszewska-Fiedoruk ◽  
Vasyl Zhelykh ◽  
Andrii Pushchinskyi

The quality of internal air is one of the factors that affect the pace and quality of knowledge acquisition. Therefore, it is important that classrooms have high quality of air. Using computer simulation, the effect of various building ventilation variants on air quality in classrooms was analyzed. Two criteria were analyzed and six variants of ventilation. The analysis was carried out using the CONTAMW program, used for multi-zone analysis of ventilation and air quality in a building. As an indicator of air quality, the concentration of carbon dioxide in school halls was adopted. The analyses show that natural ventilation is not able to provide proper air exchange. Regular airing of classrooms during breaks can reduce the carbon dioxide concentration to 2500 ppm, however, there is a significant reduction in indoor temperature (even below 10 °C). The best control over the internal environment can be obtained by using a supply–exhaust ventilation system with heat recovery. Obtaining a higher stabilization of ventilation is achieved by supplying additional energy to drive fans, however, this is only a small amount of energy compared to the cost of heat for heating the building (maximum 2%).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document