Reconciling air quality, thermal comfort and energy efficiency in classrooms

Bearbeiter: Simon Beck

Kurzfassung

Good air quality is essential for comfort and effective learning in classrooms. It has been shown that poor air quality results in a lower level of concentration and a lower level of attendance among students (Wargocki et al., 2020). To avoid this, adequate ventilation and air filtration is necessary, creating an issue if only window airing is possible in class, as in many existing Austrian school buildings. For instance, in relatively cold winter weather, insufficient window ventilation leads to cold classrooms, especially affecting children near windows. In addition, a lot of heating energy is lost because window airing does not allow for heat recovery. There is also little control over the overall ventilation process, as the air quality is usually not sufficiently perceptible, making it likely that classrooms will be ventilated for too long or too short a period. These and other circumstances (cf. Tappler, 2019) make it necessary to take action in schools without existing measures. The main question is therefore how to quantify the dependencies on air quality, thermal comfort and energy efficiency of different ventilation systems, ventilation strategies or other measures to maintain sufficient air quality in classrooms. Another issue to be assessed is whether and how the ventilation strategies can be implemented in a real school building with practical application of theoretical ideas.

Research Questions: “What are the most energy- and cost-efficient ventilation concepts for classrooms in existing school buildings to achieve sufficient air quality and thermal comfort depending on individual parameters?”, and “How can the responsible body (e.g., school owner or operator) elaborate the optimal ventilation solution for their individual case?”

Beck, S., Rojas-Kopeinig, G., Goreth, S., Krois, E., Hechenberger, C., 2023. Preprint: Indoor Air Quality in Austrian Classrooms: Measuring and analysing data with a citizen science approach. AIVC Conference Paper.

Tappler, P., 2019. Frische Luft für wache Köpfe. Kommunal. https://kommunal.at/frische-luft-fuer-wache-koepfe.

Wargocki, P., Porras-Salazar, J.A., Contreras-Espinoza, S., Bahnfleth, W., 2020. The relationships between classroom air quality and children’s performance in school. Building and Environment 173, 106749.