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In this article the author gives some guidelines and techniques to conduct IAQ investigations at low cost for school staff with small budgets : first he advises occupant interviews, followed by a physical survey of the premices. An IAQ toolkit at low cost can be prepared for a first level type of investigation.
Then a monitor data analysis can be made with the measurements of temperature, relative humidity and CO2.
Finally an hypothesis can be developed even with little background and small budget.
But particular problems may require an experienced consultant.

In this work a methodology for indoor environmental quality assessment was applied, based on thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort indices and on their analysis and spatial representation.Object of the study was one secondary school classroom of the Province of Torino (Italy), representative of several typologies of educational buildings, showing unsatisfactory environmental conditions.

Constructional aspects and the use of school building had led to moisture and mold damages confirmed by microbiological analysis from material, surface and air samples. Cultivation methods were used to assess mesophilic fungi and actinobacteria. High concentrations of microbes (10 5 -10 6 cfu/g in different materials) were recovered from the samples. Microbes included great variety of moisture indicating species (e.g. Aspergillus versicolor, Trichoderma, Fusarium, Stachybotrys, Chaetomium, Streptomyces).

A important part of educational buildings must be retrofitted in many European countries, in the next years, for historical and demographic reasons. These retrofittings must be carried out with a limitation of energy consumption and a better indoor comfort. In this context, Annex 36 of International Energy Agency aims at promoting energy efficient measurements of educational buildings in the retrofitting process. In the same time, in France, decision makers want to integrate high environmental quality comfort requirements.

Energy conservation represents a main concern for the environmental, economical and social problems. In this field, educational buildings are large consumer of energy and in many countries need retrofits. In this paper, we propose an energy certification procedure for educational buildings which aims to improve learning and teaching environment while reducing energy consumption. The developed procedure is composed of different levels including a phase of diagnosis and then a phase of calculation of the energy consumption and the energy conservation possibilities.

This report summarizes the work of the initial working phase of IEA Annex 35 "Hybrid Ventilation in New and Retrofitted Office and Educational Buildings". It describes the state-of-the-art of hybrid ventilation technologies, of control strategioes and algorithms and of analysis methods. It provides examples of existing systems and show solutions to specific problems in 22 office and educational buildings locate in different outdoor climates.

In 1998, an international research project entitled "Hybrid Ventilation in New and Retrofitted Office and Educational Buildings" was commenced under the auspices of the International Energy Agency. The fourth forum organized within the framework of this project was held in May 2002 in Montreal, Canada. About 25 papers related to the major outcomes and technologies were presented.

One of the main objectives of this pilot study in a Swedish school was to evaluate the hybrid ventilation system with respect to ventilation, IAQ, thermal comfort, use of electricity for ventilation. The monitoring phase, lasting 2 years, included continuous measurements of outdoor environment, indoor environment, energy use. The monitoring system was integrated with the building energy management system. The reduction in energy use for space heating in the buildings was important and the reduction in use of electricity for ventilation too.

An intervention study was carried out in eleven elementary schools in Trondheim, Norway. Three schools with poor ventilation standard, four schools with carpets, and four reference schools participated. Carpets were replaced by vinyl flooring and the poor ventilation systems were upgraded. Altogether 1100 children aged twelve to thirteen years and 400 teachers were all included in the study. The baseline registration of health related symptoms was performed during January/February 1997. The questionnaires were repeated, after the interventions, in February 1998 and 1999.

The Indoor Air Quality Committee of the Boston Society of Architects was invited to evaluate a large brick school building erected in 1963 to serve 1600 students. The investigation included a written questionnaire, evaluation of air using the ASTM E981 (modified) bioassay, fungal and bacterial testing, real time monitoring of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, respirable particulate, total volatile organic compounds, relative humidity and temperature. The survey and testing enumerated many potential causes for poor IAQ.