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Children attending day care centers (CDCC) have been reported to be more prone to infectious diseases when compared with those cared for at home, and are exposed to conditions that may increase the risk of allergies and asthma. Several studies revealed that consequences of poor ventilation conditions include high levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and many other indoor pollutants commonly detected in schools. Nine child day care centers were selected randomly to participate in this study. Fifty-two classrooms were assessed for chemical, biological, physical, and allergen parameters in spring and winter seasons in these nine CDCC located in Porto, Portugal. Outdoor measurements were also conducted for comparison. Our results indicated that (i) particulate matter (PM10) median levels were above the national reference levels, both by classroom type and by season; (ii) TVOC kindergarten peak values may raise some concern; (iii) CO2 was present at high median and maximum levels during spring and winter assessment in both nurseries and kindergartens classrooms; (iv) total bacteria concentrations were 57- and 52-fold higher in the nursery and kindergarten than outdoors, respectively, for the spring season; (v) winter and spring median predicted mean vote (PMV) indices were between "neutral" (0) and "slightly cool" (≤ -1) in the thermal sensation scale for comfort situations (-2 to 2) for both types of classrooms; (vi) there were significant differences for both PMV and predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) indices by season; and (vii) CO2, total bacteria, and gram-negative bacteria were associated with low airflow rates. These data will help to evaluate the effectiveness of current building operation practices in child day care centers regarding indoor air quality and respiratory health.

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Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) are becoming an attractive solution in the context of high penetration of photovoltaics (PV) in buildings caused by the strive to achieve net or nearly zero energy status. Besides retrieving solar radiation to produce electricity, BIPV also offers aesthetical advantages because of its architectural feature. This paper reports on the electrical energy performance of a passive solar office building, Solar XXI, located in Lisbon, Portugal, which has installed on the South façade a BIPV (12 kWp) and an additional photovoltaic roof system in a nearby car park facility (12 kWp) for electricity generation. The main objective is to investigate the potential to increase load matching between energy generation and consumption and improve grid interaction for two scenarios using the energy flexibility enabled by the integration of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) with capacities ranging from 13.5 kWh to 54 kWh. To collect the required results, real consumption and generation data are used, together with numerical simulations related to the integration of the BESS. The results show that load matching and grid interaction related metrics can be significantly improved by using the energy flexibility provided by a BESS and that the implementation of such system can be economically viable for a 10-year period.