Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Classrooms at the University of the Basque Country through a User-Informed Natural Ventilation Demonstrator

Iñigo Rodríguez-Vidal, Alexander Martín-Garín, Francisco González-Quintial, José Miguel Rico-Martínez, Rufino J. Hernández-Minguillón and Jorge Otaegi ()
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Iñigo Rodríguez-Vidal: CAVIAR Research Group, Department of Architecture, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati, 2, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Alexander Martín-Garín: CAVIAR Research Group, Department of Architecture, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati, 2, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Francisco González-Quintial: CAVIAR Research Group, Department of Architecture, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati, 2, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
José Miguel Rico-Martínez: CAVIAR Research Group, Department of Architecture, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati, 2, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Rufino J. Hernández-Minguillón: CAVIAR Research Group, Department of Architecture, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati, 2, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
Jorge Otaegi: CAVIAR Research Group, Department of Architecture, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Plaza Oñati, 2, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-28

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a renewed interest in indoor air quality to limit viral spread. In the case of educational spaces, due to the high concentration of people and the fact that most of the existing buildings do not have any mechanical ventilation system, the different administrations have established natural ventilation protocols to guarantee an air quality that reduces risk of contagion by the SARS-CoV-2 virus after the return to the classrooms. Many of the initial protocols established a ventilation pattern that opted for continuous or intermittent ventilation to varying degrees of intensity. This study, carried out on a university campus in Spain, analyses the performance of natural ventilation activated through the information provided by monitoring and visualisation of real-time data. In order to carry out this analysis, a experiment was set up where a preliminary study of ventilation without providing information to the users was carried out, which was then compared with the result of providing live feedback to the occupants of two classrooms and an administration office in different periods of 2020, 2021 and 2022. In the administration office, a CO 2 -concentration-based method was applied retrospectively to assess the risk of airborne infection. This experience has served as a basis to establish a route for user-informed improvement of air quality in educational spaces in general through low-cost systems that allow a rational use of natural ventilation while helping maintain an adequate compromise between IAQ, comfort and energy consumption, without having to resort to mechanical ventilation systems.

Keywords: indoor air quality (IAQ); COVID-19; natural ventilation; schools; airborne infection risk; thermal comfort; human-building interaction; monitoring; retrospective analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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