PUBLICACIONES últimos 10 años

Calama-González, C. M., León-Rodríguez, Á. L., & Suárez, R. (2019). Indoor Air Quality Assessment: Comparison of Ventilation Scenarios for Retrofitting Classrooms in a Hot Climate.

REVISTA: Energies, 12(24), 1-20.

IMPACTO:  JCR (2019): 2,702. ENERGY & FUELS, (Q3) (63/112)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/en12244607

ABSTRACT:

Current energy efficiency policies in buildings foster the promotion of energy retrofitting of the existing stock. In southern Spain, the most extensive public sector is that of educational buildings, which is especially subject to significant internal loads due to high occupancy. A large fraction of the energy retrofit strategies conducted to date have focused on energy aspects and indoor thermal comfort, repeatedly disregarding indoor air quality criteria. This research assesses indoor air quality in a school located in the Mediterranean area, with the objective of promoting different ventilation scenarios, based on occupancy patterns and carbon dioxide levels monitored on site. Results show that manual ventilation cannot guarantee minimum indoor quality levels following current standards. A constant ventilation based on CO2 levels allows 15% more thermal comfort hours a year to be reached, compared to CO2-based optimized demand-controlled ventilation. Nevertheless, the latter ensures 35% annual energy savings, compared to a constant CO2-based ventilation, and 37% more annual energy savings over that of a constant ventilation rate of outdoor air per person.

Highlights:

CO2 was below 425 ppm during the unoccupied period.
CO2 was between 500-1000 ppm during 45% of occupied hours.
CO2 exceeded 1500 ppm in more than 50% of the occupied hours in thermal comfort.
CO2-based constant ventilation reached the highest percentage of comfort hours.
CO2-based optimized ventilation allowed the highest annual electricity savings.