Indoor Air Quality Assessment: Comparison of Ventilation Scenarios for Retrofitting Classrooms in a Hot Climate

Current energy e ciency policies in buildings foster the promotion of energy retrofitting of the existing stock. In southern Spain, the most extensive public sector is that of educational buildings, which is especially subject to significant internal loads due to high occupancy. A large fraction of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Calama-González, Carmen María, León-Rodríguez, Ángel Luis, Suárez, Rafael
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Sevilla (US)
Repositorio:idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla
OAI Identifier:oai:idus.us.es:11441/95292
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/11441/95292
https://doi.org/10.3390/en12244607
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:school buildings
indoor air quality
CO2 levels
mechanical ventilation
thermal comfort
energy consumption
Mediterranean climate
Descripción
Sumario:Current energy e ciency policies in buildings foster the promotion of energy retrofitting of the existing stock. In southern Spain, the most extensive public sector is that of educational buildings, which is especially subject to significant internal loads due to high occupancy. A large fraction of the energy retrofit strategies conducted to date have focused on energy aspects and indoor thermal comfort, repeatedly disregarding indoor air quality criteria. This research assesses indoor air quality in a school located in the Mediterranean area, with the objective of promoting di erent ventilation scenarios, based on occupancy patterns and carbon dioxide levels monitored on site. Results show that manual ventilation cannot guarantee minimum indoor quality levels following current standards. A constant ventilation based on CO2 levels allows 15% more thermal comfort hours a year to be reached, compared to CO2-based optimized demand-controlled ventilation. Nevertheless, the latter ensures 35% annual energy savings, compared to a constant CO2-based ventilation, and 37% more annual energy savings over that of a constant ventilation rate of outdoor air per person.