Assessment of indoor air quality in crowded educational spaces

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2012
Betuz, Naima Ebru
Indoor air quality has become a challenge together with the global aim ‘decreasing energy consumption’. Increasing insulation levels of building envelopes but implementing inaccurate building system details has caused excessive heat, accumulation of pollutants, etc. in spaces. In terms of educational spaces, the increase in complaints and illnesses due to unfavorable indoor air conditions leads to a decrease in concentration and so academic performance of students and staff. In the context, the aim of the study was indicating the poor indoor air quality conditions caused by inadequate fresh air supply in crowded educational spaces and making recommendations for the improvement. In the study, a classroom and a design studio in the METU Faculty of Architecture building were investigated. In order to examine the existing situation, at two locations of each room the temperature, relative humidity and CO2 were continuously recorded between 13 September 2011 and 24 February 2012 and air speed for ten-day periods between 26 November 2011 and 5 January 2012. The evaluation of the collected data indicated that both of the rooms had temperature, so relative humidity and CO2 accumulation problems mainly due to insufficient fresh air supply in the winter period. In order to eliminate the poor conditions in the rooms, the needed outdoor air can be provided through the inlet openings coupled with fan coils, which are in existence but not in use.

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Citation Formats
N. E. Betuz, “Assessment of indoor air quality in crowded educational spaces,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2012.