Long-term analysis of indoor air quality and thermal comfort in a public school

Abstract

The paper is focused on the investigation of the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in two classrooms from a thermal renovated school from Bucharest, related to indoor carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3) concentrations or airborne particles (PM2.5), by using experimental data. The experimental campaign has been conducted over a long period (February-June 2022), allowing the study of indoor air quality under different weather data conditions. The results showed that the use of classroom ventilation is mandatory in order to reach a satisfactory degree of thermal comfort and indoor air quality and even the natural ventilation by windows opening remains a simply and useful tool to lower the indoor pollutant concentrations. However, if the target is to ensure permanent good indoor air quality in these learning spaces, a mechanical ventilation system is more adapted than the natural ventilation, due to the fact it is independent of the weather factors variation (outside temperature and wind velocity and direction).