Room-Level Ventilation in Schools and Universities

Abstract

Ventilation is of primary concern for maintaining healthy indoor air quality and reducing the spread of airborne infectious disease, including COVID-19. In addition to building-level guidelines, increased attention is being placed on room-level ventilation. However, for many universities and schools, ventilation data on a room-by-room basis are not available for classrooms and other key spaces. We present an overview of approaches for measuring ventilation along with their advantages and disadvantages. We also present data from recent case studies for a variety of institutions across the United States, with various building ages, types, locations, and climates, highlighting their commonalities and differences, and examples of the use of this data to support decision making.

Numerical Simulations of Synthetic Ester Hydrolysis in the Indoor Environment

“…ACH to account for different locations, from naturally ventilated homes with relatively low ACH to mechanically ventilated buildings with relatively high ACH. [34][35][36] Further details on the following test conditions specific to individual scenarios are provided in the Supporting Information.…”

Low-Carbon Comfort Management for Smart Buildings

“…The answer may depend on which comfort variable is under consideration, as well as the type of building or usage/occupancy of a building. For example, in a school, it might be preferable for some classrooms to have different settings from each other at different times of day after taking into consideration the preferences of classroom occupants as a group [14]. On the other hand, in an office building that is composed of many single-occupancy offices, it may be more appropriate to allow each office room to be adjusted based on individual preferences.…”

Development and validation of a methodology to measure exhaled carbon dioxide (CO2) and control indoor air renewal

“…Many countries have implemented CO2 measurement as a standard in different spaces, such as shopping centers, 57 collective transport, [58][59][60][61] workspaces, 62 or university and school classrooms. [62][63][64][65][66][67] Beyond research projects, some governments have decided to bet on scientific criteria and invest resources to mitigate contagion among the population. For example, the U.K. government distributed more than 300,000 CO2 meters in its schools to optimize air renewal during classes.…”