Education Today Education Today Magazine
With schools having had to deal with extreme disruption during the pandemic, head teachers have been looking for ways to mitigate COVID transmission in schools to help ensure children can learn safely in the classroom. The Government has cited the importance of well-ventilated rooms, with ventilation a key mitigation that helps reduce COVID cases. In fact, a recent study by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) has found that poorly ventilated classrooms result in six times the number of COVID cases.
With the added threat of the highly transmissible COVID variant Omicron, it’s essential that schools are able to effectively ventilate classrooms to reduce transmission and avoid further closures. It’s also important for schools to be able to balance thermal comfort and effective levels of ventilation. Having effective ventilation installed and improving the indoor air quality (IAQ) is paramount to the health and wellbeing of both students and teachers. If a school does not have adequate ventilation, then the only option is to open windows, this not only causes heat loss and cold draughts depending on the season but high levels of CO2 can build-up if windows are left unopened which often exceeds the CIBSE guidelines maximum of 1500ppm directly affecting the performance and attention span of those in the room, causing tiredness, drowsiness, and a lack of concentration. Longer term exposure to polluted air is also linked too many serious health conditions such as cancer, asthma and cardiovascular diseases.
Schools will be aware of the value of CO2 monitors as a proxy sensor since the Government has been supplying them to state schools to identify badly ventilated areas. Vent-Axia’s CO2 sensors are discreetly located on a wall and can intelligently boost ventilation based on the detected CO2 levels.
www.vent-axia.com/ventilationinschools
