SchoolVent pilot ventilation system with indirect adiabatic cooling and high efficiency filtering

Abstract

Existing schools are badly insulated and often suffer from inadequate ventilation and cold in winter and too high temperatures in summer. Further schools nearby a busy road require high efficiency filtering, which traditionally lead to high pressure drops and installation noise. Current ventilation systems suitable for renovation often require expensive commissioning measurements and lack monitoring facilities during the use phase.With the development of the SchoolVent system we have solved these problems in an energy efficient manner. Core of the system is a balanced ventilation system with heat recovery. The heat exchanger is also used for indirect adiabatic cooling. For filtering a high efficiency and low pressure drop electrostatic filtration system is scaled up to 10.000 m3/hour. With this airflow 5 classrooms can be conditioned. The components have first been tested in the TNO laboratory. After that a pilot has been started on the Montessori Lyceum in Zeist. The main results of the monitoring during 2019/2020 are a heat recovery efficiency between 60 and 75%. With regard to the indoor climate class A of the “PvE Frisse scholen” has been achieved for summer and winter temperature and for CO2 concentration. With regard to filtration depending on the flowrate the specifications of an E10 – E11 filter have been obtained. In the climatized class rooms this lead to a 70 – 96% lower PM2.5 concentration compared to a reference classroom. The system has been further optimized with regard to installation costs and in 2021 another 14 classrooms are equipped with the SchoolVent system.