schools

The exposure of children to indoor air pollutants in school classrooms might cause them adverse health effects. In order to confront this issue, the in-depth study and evaluation of the indoor air quality in classrooms is necessary. The aims of this study are to characterize the environmental factors that affect indoor air quality.

The present article deals with the energy classification and the environmental evaluation of the school buildings in Greece. The energy performance of the school buildings, in relation to the normalized annual consumption for heating regarding floor area and climatic conditions, was rated using clustering technique (K-means algorithm) and an energy classification tool developed. The audited school buildings were classified into five energy categories.

The concentration levels of particulate matter (PM), airborne fungi, carbon dioxide as well as temperature and relative humidity were investigated in the indoor and outdoor environment of two schools in Athens, Greece during the period January to May 2011. The overall concentration ranges of the indoor measured pollutants were: PM10: 14.92-166.18 μg/m3, PM2.5: 3.16-31.27 μg/m3, PM1: 0.72-9.01 μg/m3, UFP: 4188-63093 pt/cm3, total airborne fungi: 28-2098 CFU/m3 and CO2: 389-1717 ppm.

This study copes with the problem of ventilation in existing educational environments in terms of indoor air quality (AIQ), comfort and energy consumption. In accordance with international regulations, densely occupied environments such as school classrooms need high air change rates in order to provide sufficient fresh air. Nevertheless, in Italian schools, it is rare to see mechanical ventilation systems or natural systems that are mechanically controlled. This means that it is necessary for the users to control air changes by opening or closing the windows.

The provision of good IAQ in schools is important both for the health of students and in maximising educational achievement. It is, however, common for school classrooms to be significantly under-ventilated and this can lead to high levels of CO2 and other pollutants. Natural ventilation offers the potential to improve IAQ within schools whilst, at the same time reducing running and maintenance costs. Accordingly, this article examines a natural ventilation strategy based on the use of a roof mounted split-duct Windcatcher ventilator. Here, 16 U.K.

Windcatchers are roof mounted devices that use the action of the wind to provide top down natural ventilation to a room. Here, fresh air is channelled into a room while, at the same time, stale air is drawn out. This provides a simple but attractive natural ventilation methodology that is increasing in popularity in U.K. schools. However, an analysis of system performance has largely been limited to laboratory based measurements and the use of CFD to generate predictions.

The present paper aims at investigating the indoor air quality in fifteen school buildings located in the greater Athens area. Experimental investigations were performed in fifteen different school classrooms and the concentration levels of various pollutants such as CO2, CO, TVOC, HCHO, and radon, were measured. Moreover, the experimental investigation included measurements of several environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity and air velocity inside each classroom, while ventilation was examined by estimating the air changes using the tracer gas technique.

Radon gas is now considered to be a health hazard when found in excessive amounts in the builtenvironment. The levels of radon vary greatly, with some geographical areas having very highlevels. In the United Kingdom, Northamptonshire was declared an Affected Area in 1992, and itwas at this stage that our group first started studying radon levels and the steps taken to reducethem.The radon levels both before and after remediation were studied, together with the number ofoccupants of affected rooms, and their pattern of occupation.

This paper describes a series of field measurements investigating the ventilation rates and indoor airquality in four newly built secondary schools in England. In these schools each with a differentventilation strategy - measurements and calculations were performed to determine the variation inventilation rates during the school day. All the schools were assessed for compliance with the recentlyadopted Building Bulletin 101 which defines the set of criteria in relation to the ventilation rates andindoor air quality in new school buildings.

In this paper air distribution solutions aiming to lower air velocities and good temperature control arestudied by measurements in 6 schools and temperature simulations. Air velocity measurementsshowed good performance of duct and ceiling diffusers which provided maximum velocities less than0.2 m/s and can be highly recommended for classrooms. The wall diffusers were clearly not suitable forclassrooms due to high velocities up to 0.43 m/s.