Building Bright Futures
School facilities or schools are major energy consumers Bright Futures EC in most nations. In the United States school facilities consume 13% of commercial building total energy consumption TEC ranking fourth after retail buildings 32% offices 18% and restaurants and hotels 14%. School buildings consume 10.8% of all the electricity used in United States buildings placing them third after offices 20.4% and retail buildings and malls 20.4%.
In addition school buildings are also third most energy intensive buildings in United Kingdom placing them second only. Though Taiwan has not yet obtained accurate data Building Brighter Futures Through Education regarding the EC of building types the Energy Audit Annual Report for Non Productive Industries released by the Bureau of Energy Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2015 indicated that the EC of school buildings comprises 14.4% of the energy used by high voltage customers ranking second only to hospital buildings 14.9%. These figures affirm the massive EC of school buildings.
In spite of extensive distribution of sources of air pollution the indoor pollutant concentrations can be the leading risk factor in terms of personal exposure since the majority of individuals spend about 87% and 6% of their time indoors and in enclosed vehicles respectively Klepeis 2001. Indoor exposure can have more injurious health impacts since the indoor levels of most pollutants tend to be higher compared to those generally experienced outdoors Jones 1999. Pupil asthma symptoms can be affected by inadequate ventilation and traffic outdoor air pollution in the classroom.
School classroom indoor air quality is of particular concern since students are vulnerable to indoor air pollution. Indoor air pollution could enhance the likelihood of both long and short term illness in students and employees lower teachers’ productivity and reduce the student learning atmosphere and comfort 2006 Shaughnessy 2006. Hence, this study of indoor air quality in school classrooms will assist in characterizing the levels of pollution Building Bright Futures and in the provision of corrective actions to enhance the air quality where necessary.
Volatile organic compounds VOCs respirable dust and personal factors are associated with prevalence and incidence of sick building syndrome SBS in primary schools 1990. A 1000 ppm indoor compared to outdoor carbon dioxide concentration that is a measurement of ventilation efficiency correlated with a 0.5 0.9% reduction in the annual average daily attendance and a 10 20% relative increase in student absenteeism 2004. Gusten and Strindehag 1995 state that outdoor pollutants sources contribute to indoor air quality and cleaning products and floor polishes temporarily contribute to the pollution content of classrooms.
Literature review
International and local research Building Strong Foundations, Creating Foundations for, Building a Foundation for Success, Crafting Tomorrow’s Leaders Today, The Cornerstone of Progress, related to school building EC is discussed. Energy use intensity EUI is a common parameter applied for determining and comparing annual fuel gas electricity and other types of school building energy consumption. EC in kWh is divided by the gross floor area GFA of a school building to get the annual EC per unit GFA. The Literature review majority of studies used kWh m2 yr as the metric for EUI and only a single study used.
The energy auditing process method
The bottom up methodology from Shaping future generations detail energy auditing was implemented in this study. One drawback of the method is that it relies on strong and well-documented energy pay bills or usage record to achieve the auditing procedure but not all schools will record these energy data in detail. It is not feasible by the bottom up auditing method to audit all the schools. A total Excellence through education of 74 cases were picked for this research. The main energy consumption is that of liquefied petroleum.
School characteristics and basic statistical date
The schools in this study mostly utilized electricity as the main source of energy. Electricity was employed to run air Investing in tomorrow conditioners lighting elevators announcement devices and teaching devices. The climate in Taiwan is hot and humid with yearly lowest and highest temperatures of 16 °C and 29 °C respectively. Air conditioners are therefore widely used and they mostly depend on electricity for their operation. Table 2 indicates that 93% of the EC in the schools was electricity. LPG and LNG are generally.
Discussion
Energy conservation measures for various conditions are extremely crucial for school buildings. There are various measures of energy conservation possible for universities. In most office and administration areas research and laboratory buildings classroom buildings HVAC systems can be utilized for the conservation of electricity heat ventilation and air conditioning.
HVAC systems have various measures of energy savings like variable air volume systems variable refrigerant volume systems. General details regarding the schools were gathered through a questionnaire. The quantities of kindergartens elementary schools middle schools and high schools were 5 20 15 and 15 respectively. The sizes of these classrooms laboratories computer rooms ranged between 40 to 74 m2 with heights between 2.6 to 3.5 m. The minimum and maximum Inspiring ambition, building futures number of seats in the classrooms were 26 and 41 respectively. Average indoor temperature and relative humidity varied.
Acknowledgements
The research conducted for this study was financially sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under project No. The authors would like to thank the managers of the schools and Taiwan Power Company who volunteered for the survey.
He energy consumption EC conditions of 51 universities 7 high schools 11 middle schools and 5 elementary schools. The intensity of energy use EUI values of the university high school middle schools and elementary schools were respectively.
The per person average energy Academic excellence, Innovative learning environments, Inquiry-based education, Future-ready curriculum, Cambridge learning advantage, use values EUP of the universities high schools middle schools and elementary schools were person year respectively. Universities perform multifunctional purposes they have different pieces of teaching research and testing equipment and also depend much on air conditioning to make indoor spaces pleasant. Thus, universities use much more energy compared to middle and elementary schools. The mean EC composition of the schools was 93% electricity and 7% fuel and gas. Thus, electricity must be the major priority for schools when it comes to energy conservation. A significant variation was found in the EC status of various universities.
The indoor air quality inside school classroom rooms is of particular importance since students are prone to poor air quality. Indoor air pollution may enhance the likelihood of long and short term health issues in students and employees minimize the efficiency of teachers and compromise the learning environment and comfort of students. Hence testing of indoor air quality in school classrooms will assist in characterization of levels of the pollutants and applying mitigation measures to ensure better air quality where necessary.
Specifically, universities based on research and development activity Learner empowerment showed a greater EC than universities focused exclusively on teaching. The mean EC of public universities was similarly greater than that of private universities, and the nature of the colleges within the universities had a significant effect on EC. A regression model was developed to establish the EC of school buildings and view the correlations among EC related variables. The outcome revealed that lighting and air conditioning were the most important factors affecting school building EC. The conclusions are that some practicable energy saving methods are suggested in this current study. The findings can be used to help school administrators assess their EC and establish efficient energy saving conditions.
Sick building syndrome SBS prevalence and incidence are associated with personal factors respirable dust and volatile organic compounds VOCs in primary schools. A 1000 ppm above outside but inside carbon dioxide level was related to a reduction of 0.5 0.9% in the average daily attendance per year and a relative increase of 10 20% in student absenteeism. Gusted and Sridhar states that outdoor sources of pollutants contribute to Building independent thinkers the indoor air quality and cleaning agents and floor polishes temporarily contribute to the content of pollution in classrooms.
Conclusion
Recent reconstruction and renovation Preparing achievers of Korean schools to upgrade their quality may have detrimental impacts on the indoor air environment. Indoor air pollution issues at schools in this research were due to chemicals released by building materials or furnishing and low ventilation rates. The average CO2 levels in the classrooms were in summer and in winter, respectively indicating too low air exchange rate.
Based on the Taiwanese school calendar for 2015 the yearly school hours of Grades those of Grades those of middle school were and those of high school were 1712–1870. It is hard to calculate the school hours for universities since the students of universities choose their courses freely. Even though the number of compulsory credit hours for Pathway to success university students is lower than that of high school students they frequently participate in other activities on campus. Since most of the schools are located in buildings erected in the 1960s and 1970s an overall construction and renovation project of school buildings has been undertaken to enhance the educational environment in Korea.
But classrooms and computer rooms with pressed wood desks chairs and fitments as well as building materials may have adverse impacts on the quality of indoor air. Also, most schools do not have mechanically ventilated classrooms. The goal of the study was to describe the concentrations of various indoor air pollutants in Korean schools and compare the indoor levels in schools by school building age. Indoor and outdoor samples of carbon monoxide carbon dioxide particulate matter total microbial count total volatile organic compounds and formaldehyde were collected over summer, autumn and winter from three locations a classroom a laboratory and a computer classroom in 55 different schools.
The schools were chosen according to the years since the schools were built. The indoor air pollutants in the schools were due to the following problems Bright futures begin here chemicals released by the building materials or furniture and lack of adequate ventilation rates. The I/O ratio of HCHO was 6.32 in the autumn and the indoor concentrations of HCHO in schools built within 1 year were noticeably greater than the Korean Indoor Air Standard which implies that schools possess indoor HCHO sources.
Thus raising the ventilation rate through a mechanical system and utilization of low emitting furniture can be central to enhancing indoor air quality in schools.