Schools’ air quality monitoring for health and education: Methods and protocols of the SAMHE initiative and project

Chatzidiakou, Lia; Archer, Rhys; Beale, Victoria; Bland, Sam; Carter, Holly; Castro-Faccetti, Claudia; Edwards, Hannah; Finneran, Joshua; Hama, Sarkawt; Jones, Roderic L.; Kumar, Prashant; Linden, Paul F.; Rawat, Nidhi; Roberts, Katherine; Symons, Charles; Vouriot, Carolanne; Wang, Douglas; Way, Lucy; West, Sarah; Weston, Dale; Williams, Natalie; Wood, Samuel; Burridge, Henry C.

doi:10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100266

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The effect of IAQ contamination within a space raises practical scenarios, especially in schools and universities. Researchers have debated aspects of alarm access and notifications within schools and universities when IAQ contaminates exceed threshold levels [36][37][38][39].…”

Section: Practicalities Of Modeling a Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Energy in University Classrooms: Simplified Model to Predict Trade-Offs and Synergies

Shoukry,

Raafat,

Tarabieh

et al. 2024

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Students and educators spend significant time in learning spaces on university campuses. Energy efficiency has become a concern among facility managers, given the need to maintain acceptable indoor air quality (IAQ) levels during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper investigates the relationship between control and extraneous variables in a university classroom’s total mechanical ventilation (kWh). The model is built using Grasshopper software on Rhino Version 7. Our methodology encompasses (1) an extensive review of recent trends for studying IAQ and energy, (2) selecting parameters for simulation, (3) model configuration on Grasshopper, and finally, (4) a formulation of a pertinent equation to consolidate the relationship between the studied factors and the total mechanical ventilation energy (kWh). Central to this study are two key research questions: (1) What correlations exist between various parameters related to occupancy and IAQ in educational spaces? And (2) how can we optimize energy efficiency in university classrooms? The main contribution of this research is a generated equation representing the annual mechanical ventilation energy consumption based on selected parameters of classroom height, area, occupancy, window location, and ventilation rate of HVAC systems. We find that occupancy and class volume are the two most influential factors directly affecting mechanical ventilation energy consumption. The equation serves as a valuable estimation tool for facility managers, designers, and campus operations to investigate how fluctuations in occupancy can influence ventilation energy consumption in the physical attributes of a university classroom. This enables proactive decision-making, optimizing energy efficiency and resource allocation in real-time to promote sustainable and cost-effective campus operations.

show abstract

Section: Practicalities Of Modeling a Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Energy in University Classrooms: Simplified Model to Predict Trade-Offs and Synergies

Shoukry,

Raafat,

Tarabieh

et al. 2024

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Unfortunately, most of the school buildings did not have CO 2 monitoring devices at the beginning, and those with them failed to address the TC criteria [7]. Since them, the monitoring of CO 2 has become recently a very popular easy-to-use tool for IAQ evaluation [26].…”

Section: Recent Evolution Of the Indoor Air Quality Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of Dynamic Natural Ventilation Protocols for Optimal Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Adaptive Comfort during the Winter Season in Subtropical-Climate School Buildings

Cordero,

Melgar,

Márquez

2024

Applied Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The need for energy-efficient buildings must be based on strong effective passive-design techniques, which coordinate indoor air quality and thermal comfort. This research describes the principles, simulation, implementation, and monitoring of two different natural cross-ventilation algorithm scenarios applied to a school-building case study affected by a subtropical climate during the winter season. These ventilation protocols, the steady and dynamic versions, can control the carbon dioxide concentration and actuate the window openings according to pre-defined window-to-wall ratios. The implementation of the monitoring process during three non-consecutive days in the winter of 2021 validates the opening strategy to maintain carbon dioxide below 800 ppm, described by the protocol Hygiene Measures Against COVID-19, and the temperature within the comfort ranges suggested by the adaptive UNE-EN 16798. The study shows that a steady opening of 2.16% window-to-wall equivalent ratio can be enough to maintain the requested comfort and carbon dioxide conditions. The use of the dynamic window ratios, from 0.23% to 2.16%, modified according to the measured carbon dioxide concentration, can partially maintain the carbon dioxide below the required limits for ASHRAE 62.1, Hygiene Measures Against COVID-19 and UNE-EN 16798 between 48.28% to 74.14% of the time. However, the carbon dioxide limit proposed by RITE, 500 ppm, is only achieved for 15.52% of the time, which demonstrates the inadequacy of the natural ventilation to fulfil the standard. Further improvements in the dynamic control of the openings in these buildings could lead to lower carbon dioxide concentrations while maintaining the thermal comfort in mild winter climates.

show abstract

Assessing classroom ventilation rates using CO2 data from a nationwide study of UK schools and identifying school-wide correlation factors

Wood,

Handy,

Roberts

et al. 2024

Developments in the Built Environment

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Schools’ air quality monitoring for health and education: Methods and protocols of the SAMHE initiative and project

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Energy in University Classrooms: Simplified Model to Predict Trade-Offs and Synergies

Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Energy in University Classrooms: Simplified Model to Predict Trade-Offs and Synergies

Validation of Dynamic Natural Ventilation Protocols for Optimal Indoor Air Quality and Thermal Adaptive Comfort during the Winter Season in Subtropical-Climate School Buildings

Assessing classroom ventilation rates using CO2 data from a nationwide study of UK schools and identifying school-wide correlation factors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About