Journal
ARCHITECTURAL SCIENCE REVIEW
Volume 65, Issue 1, Pages 1-13Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00038628.2021.1988892
Keywords
Indoor air quality; school classrooms; CO2 concentration; ventilation; air change rates; particulate matter
Categories
Funding
- Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
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The study evaluated indoor air quality in ten Australian school classrooms in Victoria and found that most classrooms had ventilation rates below the recommended minimum. This highlights the need for increasing ventilation rates in classrooms to improve indoor air quality.
Children under 15 years spend over six hours per day in school buildings and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of poor indoor air quality (IAQ). However long-term monitoring of indoor environmental conditions is limited in Australian schools. This study evaluates IAQ in ten Australian school classrooms in the temperate settings of Victoria. Temperature, relative humidity, CO2 concentration, PM2.5 and PM10 were monitored over a period of one year. The temperature and relative humidity values in the monitored classrooms ranged between 18.7 degrees C and 23.8 degrees C and 44-63 RH%, respectively, indicating that the conditions have been mechanically controlled. The average air change (ACH) rates in the 10 school classrooms varied considerably (range: 0.7-4.83 ACH). The ventilation rates ranged from 1.6 Ls(-1) to 11.5 Ls(-1) per person with 7 out of the 10 classrooms showing ventilation rates below the recommended minimum. This study points to the need for increasing ventilation rates in classrooms.
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