A New Tailored Approach to Calculate the Optimal Number of Outdoor Air Changes in School Building HVAC Systems in the Post-COVID-19 Era

Diana D’Agostino, Martina Di Mascolo, Federico Minelli and Francesco Minichiello ()
Additional contact information
Diana D’Agostino: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Martina Di Mascolo: Polytechnic and Basic Sciences School, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Federico Minelli: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy
Francesco Minichiello: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, 80125 Naples, Italy

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-36

Abstract: Air conditioning systems can play a positive or negative role in the spread of COVID-19 infection. The importance of sufficient outdoor air changes in buildings was highlighted by the World Health Organization, therefore these should be guaranteed by mechanical ventilation systems or adequate air conditioning systems. The proposed case study concerns the optimal number of outdoor air changes to limit COVID-19 contagion for a school building in Central Italy. The Wells–Riley model is used to assess the risk of airborne infection, while energy consumption is calculated by a dynamic energy simulation software. The scope of the paper offers an innovative method to define the optimal ventilation strategy for the building’s HVAC system design to reduce the risk of infection with limited increases in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Results show that the desirable approach is the one in which the same low value of contagion risk is set in all rooms. This new approach results in significant energy savings, compared to the most common ones (setting the same high outdoor air rates for all rooms) to counteract the risk of infection. Finally, the zero-emission building target is verified by introducing a suitable photovoltaic system to offset pollutant emissions.

Keywords: HVAC system; school building; outdoor air changes; post-COVID-19 era; indoor air quality; mechanical ventilation; zero emission building (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/11/2769/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/11/2769/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:11:p:2769-:d:1409256

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().