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Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Evaluation of Higher Education Learning Environments

Authors

  • Supreet Lama University of West London, London, UK
  • Changfeng (Charlie) Fu Email University of West London, London, UK
  • Angela Lee University of Salford, Manchester, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/jsbct.v4i1.4042
Received: 2 November 2021; Accepted: 29 November 2021; Published Online: 5 January 2022

Abstract

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), particularly in educational facilities, is gaining
considerable interest and is a synonymous indicator towards evaluating
human comfort. Factors such as CO2 concentration, temperature, and
humidity play crucial parts in determining an acceptable level of IAQ.
Many studies have also demonstrated that the indoor air quality of
classrooms affects students’ concentration and performance. Today with
the threat of a global pandemic, the demand of clean & fresh indoor air
quality in education buildings is extremely intensive. This study focuses
on investigating IAQ situations and changes in different typical functional
spaces of a higher education building in the UK. CO2, temperature, and
humidity data in various learning environment were monitored via data
loggers during the winter. Associated with data monitoring, a set of
questionnaires surveys were carried out to evaluate the user’s experience.
The results of this study show that temperature and CO2 concentration
in the classrooms was constantly higher than the government guidance
on a daily basis. The analysis also shows that temperature and humidity
increased with CO2 levels, but at a much lower rate. This study has
revealed poor and concerning IAQ in higher education buildings in the UK,
particularly in larger rooms with high occupancy. Along with the findings,
this paper also identifies possible impact or factors and proposes solutions
to overcome these issues.

Keywords:

Indoor air quality, Temperature, Carbon dioxide (CO2), Humidity, Human comfort, Educational building

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Issue

2022 Vol.4 No.1

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Article

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Copyright © 2022 Supreet Lama, Changfeng (Charlie) Fu, Angela Lee

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.