Effects of Climatic Conditions, Season and Environmental Factors on CO 2 Concentrations in Naturally Ventilated Primary Schools in Chile

Muriel Diaz, Mario Cools, Maureen Trebilcock, Beatriz Piderit-Moreno and Shady Attia
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Muriel Diaz: Sustainable Building Design Lab, Department UEE, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Université de Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Mario Cools: Local Environment Management & Analysis (LEMA), Department UEE, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Université de Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium
Maureen Trebilcock: Department of Architectural Design and Theory, Faculty of Architecture, Construction and Design, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Beatriz Piderit-Moreno: Department of Architectural Design and Theory, Faculty of Architecture, Construction and Design, Universidad del Bío-Bío, Concepción 4051381, Chile
Shady Attia: Sustainable Building Design Lab, Department UEE, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Université de Liège, 4000 Liège, Belgium

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: Between the ages of 6 and 18, children spend between 30 and 42 h a week at school, mostly indoors, where indoor environmental quality is usually deficient and does not favor learning. The difficulty of delivering indoor air quality (IAQ) in learning facilities is related to high occupancy rates and low interaction levels with windows. In non-industrialized countries, as in the cases presented, most classrooms have no mechanical ventilation, due to energy poverty and lack of normative requirements. This fact heavily impacts the indoor air quality and students’ learning outcomes. The aim of the paper is to identify the factors that determine acceptable CO 2 concentrations. Therefore, it studies air quality in free-running and naturally ventilated primary schools in Chile, aiming to identify the impact of contextual, occupant, and building design factors, using CO 2 concentration as a proxy for IAQ. The monitoring of CO 2 , temperature, and humidity revealed that indoor air CO 2 concentration is above 1400 ppm most of the time, with peaks of 5000 ppm during the day, especially in winter. The statistical analysis indicates that CO 2 is dependent on climate, seasonality, and indoor temperature, while it is independent of outside temperature in heated classrooms. The odds of having acceptable concentrations of CO 2 are bigger when indoor temperatures are high, and there is a need to ventilate for cooling.

Keywords: educational building; free-running; carbon dioxide; indoor air temperature; interaction; occupant density; indoor environmental quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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