Resumen de Assessing intervention measures to improve ventilation rates in an university classroom

José Alí Porras Salazar, Jan Frederik Flor

• español

  La calidad del aire interior juega un papel fundamental en la salud y bienestar de las personas. Una de las formas más efectivas de mejorarla es la ventilación. Realizamos un estudio de campo en un aula de la Universidad de Costa Rica para evaluar la tasa de renovación del aire y la ocupación máxima permitida según los estándares internacionales. Exploramos si intervenciones simples como dejar las puertas abiertas o emplear ventiladores para redistribuir mejor el aire entrante aumentan las tasas de ventilación.

• English

  Indoor air quality plays a fundamental role in the health and well-being of people. Ventilation is one of the most effective ways to improve it. We conducted a field study at the University of Costa Rica’s School of Architecture to assess a classroom’s air-change rate and the maximum permitted space occupancy by international standards. We explored if simple interventions like leaving doors open or employing fans to redistribute incoming air would increase ventilation rates in the classroom. We used the concentration-decay method with metabolic CO2 as a tracer gas to determine the air change rate in the space under regular use and intervention conditions as well as the maximum number of students the classroom could accommodate. Our results show that air changes per hour were five times higher during the intervention than under normal conditions. With the improvements, classroom occupancy can be increased from 7 to 59 students while still meeting the ASHRAE 62.1-2022 standard. Our study demonstrates that simple changes in the spatial setting can significantly improve ventilation, positively impacting user well-being and health