Thermal comfort models and perception of users in free-running school buildings of East-Mediterranean region

Ventilation conditions and their influence on thermal comfort in examination classrooms in times of COVID-19. A case study in a Spanish area with Mediterranean climate

“…Continuous monitoring of environmental parameters and CO 2 concentration of the classrooms was carried out throughout the duration of the selected exams. CO 2 measuring equipment was placed at the end of the classrooms, in order to avoid direct exhalation by the occupants ( Heracleous and Michael, 2020 ), at a height that coincided with breathing zones of the occupants, keeping a distance of at least 1.5 m from walls and at least 1 m from people ( Griffiths and Eftekhari, 2008 ; WHO, 2020a ). Thermal environment measuring equipment was placed in the central part of the rooms in order to representatively assess the microclimate present during tests ( AENOR, 2002 ; Yang et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Heracleous and Michael evaluated the impact of natural ventilation on the indoor thermal environment through an extensive study conducted in both winter and summer in schools located in Mediterranean climate zones. For the winter period, students felt neutral or slightly cool, with mean wind chill values of −0.07 and a percentage of dissatisfied students of approximately 30% ( Heracleous and Michael, 2020 ). In a study carried out in primary schools in the northern part of Sweden during the heating period, parameters related to thermal comfort were measured and the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) was calculated ( Yang et al, 2018 ).…”

Interaction between Thermal Comfort, Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation Energy Consumption of Educational Buildings: A Comprehensive Review

“…It was pointed out that both the mechanical ventilation systems and automatic opening windows benefit the classroom for keeping a lower level of CO 2 in comparison with the manual opening of windows and doors [109], and mechanical ventilation is relatively efficient to remove the CO 2 and allow more occupants to stay in the classroom simultaneously [110]. If energy consumption is not considered, continuous ventilation during the day and night is the other most efficient and effective way to passively cool educational spaces [111]. After adopting the appropriate ventilation strategies, the CO 2 concentration can significantly decrease from 3000 ppm to 530 ppm during breaking time [112].…”

Seasonal Analysis Comparison of Three Air-Cooling Systems in Terms of Thermal Comfort, Air Quality and Energy Consumption for School Buildings in Mediterranean Climates

“…However, due to the high temperatures in summer in Southern Europe, it is not possible to overcome the internal thermal loads by natural ventilation. Many research articles focused on the natural ventilation impact on thermal comfort in the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean climate zones [22][23][24]. In most of these works, adaptive thermal comfort was used during occupancy hours, calculated from EN 15251 standard, which was cancelled by European standard EN 16798 [25,26].…”

“…Thermal comfort analysis in school buildings of East-Mediterranean area were carried out using the adaptative comfort limits of these standards. Cross ventilation during all day achieved the highest values of thermal comfort, 51% of the period occupied [22]. Other thermal comfort works about a classroom of 60 m 2 were based on the EN 15251 standard [23].…”