A comprehensive assessment of indoor air quality and thermal comfort in educational buildings in the Mediterranean climate

Maintaining good indoor air quality and thermal comfort is a challenge for naturally ventilated educational buildings, as it can be difficult to achieve both aspects simultaneously. Nonetheless, most of the existing studies only focus on one aspect. To explore the potential of balancing indoor air q...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Miao, Sen|||0000-0003-0266-9405, Gangolells Solanellas, Marta|||0000-0001-7921-595X, Tejedor Herrán, Blanca|||0000-0002-2064-0617
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/396968
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/396968
https://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/6649829
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Indoor air quality
Thermal comfort
Natural ventilation
Educational buildings
On-site measurement campaign
Clustering analysis
Aire -- Control de qualitat
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Desenvolupament humà i sostenible::Enginyeria ambiental::Tractament d'emissions i olors
Descripción
Sumario:Maintaining good indoor air quality and thermal comfort is a challenge for naturally ventilated educational buildings, as it can be difficult to achieve both aspects simultaneously. Nonetheless, most of the existing studies only focus on one aspect. To explore the potential of balancing indoor air quality and thermal comfort, both topics must be investigated concurrently. This study assessed indoor air quality and thermal comfort in 32 naturally ventilated classrooms of 16 primary and secondary schools in the Mediterranean climate, based on a large on-site measurement campaign lasting one year that gathered over 460 hours of data. The research investigated occupants’ adaptive behaviors, analyzed the actual thermal comfort of around 600 students, and characterized the representative scenarios leading to good and poor indoor air quality and thermal comfort by clustering analysis. The results showed that poor indoor air quality was mainly due to closing windows and doors in winter, while thermal discomfort mainly occurred in summer because of the high indoor temperature. The findings suggested that a proper ventilation protocol is the key to balancing indoor air quality and thermal comfort.