Ventilation Strategy for Proper IAQ in Existing Nurseries Buildings - Lesson Learned from the Research during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many recommendations were made in the field of limiting the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, from which we can learn a lesson for determining ventilation strategies in strategic types of buildings (those whose closure during a pandemic is harmful to the economy, e.g. nurseries). The research was aimed at identifying recommendations in the field of ventilation and proposing a solution that would be applicable in existing buildings intended for the care of small children, and which would ensure the proper quality of the building environment, at the same time with low costs incurred by the owners. The outside air pollution (PM10) and the climate in winter (low air temperature) were also taken into account. A strategy was proposed based on the use of decentralized units, dedicated to single rooms, thanks to which the appropriate amount of air is supplied (per person), the air is cleaned and heated in the heat recovery exchanger. It has been shown that the use of heat recovery ensures that the costs of air heating will be significantly lower than during airing. The proposed solutions require two holes in the external wall with a diameter of 160-200mm (depending on the number of people), which guarantees the technically possible application in existing buildings. The strategy provides suitable conditions for the functioning of nurseries, but can be used in many types of buildings, in cold and temperate climates, where airing of the rooms during winter is not possible, especially in the case of locations where the quality of outdoor air is very poor. The proposed strategy may be applied during a pandemic, but also on a daily basis, because by ensuring the proper quality of indoor air, young children will have healthy and hygienic conditions for development when they are not at home.

Assessing Mitigation Strategies to Reduce Potential Exposures to Indoor Particle Release Events

“…A number of studies have indicated that there is still large uncertainty in accurately describing indoor aerosol deposition (e.g., (Diapouli et al, 2013)). Factors including ventilation type (Izadyar and Miller, 2022;Ratajczak, 2022;Zhao and Wu, 2009), forced-air stirring vs. calm, unstirred rooms (Schnell et al, 2006), furnishings (Abadie et al, 2001;Thatcher et al, 2002;Thatcher and Nazaroff, 1997), room or building geometry, intrusion of outside air to the…”

Challenges and Actions of IAQ under COVID-19: A Survey of Taiwanese People’s Perception of Epidemic Prevention and Indoor Places Certification

“…Practically, mechanical systems or opening doors and windows can both provide adequate ventilation [ 30 , 31 ]. The main advantage of natural ventilation is that it is a theoretically cheap and easy-to-use solution (opening the windows sufficiently), but it also disturbs the thermal regulation of the room [ 25 ]. Relatively, the implementation of mechanical ventilation is considered the best strategy to ensure adequate air quality, as it can be a additional, precise adjunct to the control procedures [ 30 , 32 ].…”

“…Compared with other empirical studies on IAQ and COVID-19, the similarities between them are that they all explore ways of improving IAQ to reduce the spread of COVID-19 [ 13 , 14 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 29 ], however, the biggest difference is the design and choice of research methods. For example, most of the studies have used instrumental monitoring [ 13 , 14 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 29 ], and a few have used literature reviews [ 20 ] or participant observation [ 26 ].…”

“…Compared with other empirical studies on IAQ and COVID-19, the similarities between them are that they all explore ways of improving IAQ to reduce the spread of COVID-19 [ 13 , 14 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 29 ], however, the biggest difference is the design and choice of research methods. For example, most of the studies have used instrumental monitoring [ 13 , 14 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 28 , 29 ], and a few have used literature reviews [ 20 ] or participant observation [ 26 ]. Accordingly, this research has the following characteristics: first, this is a first-hand survey of Taiwanese people’s perceptions of epidemic prevention and IAQ, and it also explores the public’s acceptance of the “Clean and Safe” mark; second, the questionnaire design included the background information of the respondents, their opinions on epidemic prevention strategies and IAQ, and at the same time, it inquired about the possibility of establishing “Clean and Safe” marks, and through seven indoor places frequently visited by the public, the research compared their differences; finally, the survey also conducted an in-depth analysis based on the geographic location of the respondents to explore the impact of different actual living environments.…”

Effect of Walking Modes and Temperatures on the Robustness of Ventilation Systems in the Control of Walking-induced Disturbances

“…Creating a good indoor environment is particularly important for human health (Zhang et al, 2020). At present, ventilation systems have been widely used to control indoor particle exposure (Zhou et al, 2021a;Ratajczak et al, 2022). However, outbreaks of the coronavirus disease show that indoor environment control still face many new challenges (Li et al, 2021).…”