Improvement of indoor climate in an educational building

Abstract

Educational buildings are places where young and adult people stay for a long period of time. Harm-ful and unhealthy conditions can be a reason of health issues. Therefore, the productivity of students decreases and they are not able to adopt and remember all information. Nowadays, many old educa-tional buildings have some problems with poor indoor air quality. The healthy and comfortable in-door conditions heavily depend on the design and operation of the ventilation system as well as its maintenance. The existing ventilation systems in most of the old buildings are natural exhaust ventila-tion and do not comply with actual standards. The main aim of this Bachelor’s thesis was to study existing problems with indoor air quality in a giv-en educational building and to make recommendations to solve these issues. For that purpose, some measurements of environmental characteristics such as temperature, relative humidity and exhaust air volume flow were done in the two classrooms of university in Saint Petersburg (Russia) during the classes with many students. Some theoretical backgrounds about productivity and indoor air quality and its connection were investigated. Moreover, the Finnish and Russian recommendations and guidelines concerning in-door air quality were discussed and compared. Furthermore, the measured data was analyzed taking construction and design of the given classrooms into account. The results of measurements were presented and compared with Finnish and Russian Standards to find out if the indoor air quality in the classroom satisfied these requirements. In addi-tion to this, potential solutions to improve indoor environment were discussed and described. The indoor air temperature in both classrooms in the given building exceeded limitations required by Russian and Finnish guidelines. In order to provide acceptable indoor air quality and thermal condi-tions, the exhaust air flow rate in both classrooms should be increased. The split-ductless air condi-tioning system is common equipment which is used for air recirculation to provide a room with heat-ed or chilled air. It is the most suitable system for the given classrooms because it is simple, flexible and relatively cheap. However, a unit ventilator should be used to provide the best indoor conditions.