English

There is an increasing need to consider and evaluate the effect of existing ambient warmness on current low energy buildings to determine if current guidelines and standards are robust or resilient in the face of projected future warming. Thus far there is a lack of empirical evidence from low energy non-residential spaces where resilience metrics are seldom explored. The purpose of this presentation is to present the status on overheating from over 30 different low energy non-residential buildings located in Ireland.

Project RESILIENCE set out to examine overheating risk in a variety of non-residential building archetypes, but also examined several aspects of both overheating risk metrics and indoor thermal resilience evaluation criteria. Assessing the future risk of overheating in new and retrofitted buildings is usually undertaken by applying national regulations and buildings codes where minimum criteria is typically published.

Thermal comfort of adolescents (10-17 year olds) in school classrooms is an important but less explored topic. The classroom thermal environment impacts students comfort, learning, and health. Due to differences related to physiology and ability to influence their environments, children’s thermal comfort needs and even their interpretation of thermal comfort differs from adults.

Children spend about 80-90% of their time indoors, making the quality of indoor environments (IEQ) crucial, particularly since children are more susceptible to pollutants due to their developing bodies and higher relative air intake per body weight. This study examines the influence of various indoor environmental conditions on cognitive performance in primary school students. Data collected over the first three weeks from a total eight-week cognitive study are analysed, focusing on the impact of thermal comfort and CO2 levels as proxies for ventilation. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, besides sanitising, masking, and increasing social distancing, opening classroom windows was the NZ Ministry of Education's main requirement for reopening schools. However, a pre-COVID-19 survey showed that only a third of the NZ teachers opened windows during teaching time. Achieving a suitable ventilation level could not rely on humans to open windows. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems are not affordable for most NZ schools.

Improving air quality in existing classrooms can be difficult if retrofitting a mechanical ventilation system is considered too expensive or cannot be implemented due to other reasons, e.g., heritage protection. Especially in the cold winter months, window airing initiated by pupils or teachers is often not sufficient.

This study focuses on the impact of filtration efficiency level and airflow control, based on CO2, on indoor air quality described by particle concentration in an urban low energy consumption nursery school during an autumn and a winter period. Measurements of indoor and outdoor particle concentrations have been carried out by using three different filter efficiency configurations in the school equipped with a balanced ventilation system with heat recovery. The tested filters are respectively classed G4, M5 and F7 according to NF EN 779 (2012).

Identifying factors that affect classroom concentrations of particulate matter is important for enabling effective mitigation of the associated negative health and cognitive effects, of which children can be especially susceptible. This study examines particulate matter concentrations in school classrooms from across the UK which have participated in the Schools’ Air quality Monitoring for Health and Education (SAMHE) project. Data from the 2023/2024 academic year is analysed and outdoor sources of particulate matter (PM) are shown to be a key source of PM in classrooms.

The project aims to investigate the degree of influence that outdoor conditions may have on the indoor environment in Norwegian schools. It also aims to ascertain whether it is possible to use outdoor parameters such as particulate matter, relative humidity, and air temperature, along with indoor parameters including CO2, relative humidity, and air temperature, to predict indoor particulate matter values.

In high-efficient residential buildings, energy use due to ventilation can reach 60% of the total building. Smart-ventilation systems with variable airflows adapting to the need of buildings and occupants can increase the energy performance of the building and at the same time improve or maintain IAQ. They are also considered as a huge opportunity for new and existing residential buildings.