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Last weekend marked one year since the WHO announced the Public Health Emergency of International Concern due to the impact and spread of COVID-19, which has immersed us in a pandemic since March 11, 2020. This represents a significant challenge for our welfare state, public policies, the economy, and our daily lives.
Following the closure of schools in March 2020, in September all efforts by public and educational authorities focused on the in-person reopening of all preschool, primary, and secondary schools. Contingency plans and new operating regulations for schools and colleges were implemented . After a long time of calls for adequate indoor air quality in educational centers, due to its link to attention and learning capacity, the pandemic has brought to the forefront the need to review the air we breathe indoors . And ventilation is key in this process.
Ventilation is the simplest strategy for removing pollutants from indoor air , ensuring clean air, reducing CO₂ concentrations , and eliminating aerosols — sprays, heavy vehicles in which viruses and other potential pathogens can travel.
However, educational centers have more than their share of work to do in renovating their buildings and ensuring their ventilation systems. A PEP report presented in October 2020 already concluded that air quality is insufficient and that only 32% of school study time was adequately CO₂-controlled .
Among the various ventilation strategies, protocols, and recommendations we discussed in our previous article , governments propose the use of CO₂ meters as a pre-assessment tool. This makes it possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the ventilation system . In fact, it is a widely used indicator for this purpose.
The need is clear. The contingency plans and recommendations from administrations are also clear. However, it is the schools themselves who are responsible for implementing the proposed measures .
Questions arise about how to ventilate, and how to verify that the ventilation protocol being followed is sufficient to ensure the recommended air exchange rate without jeopardizing classroom temperature.
Analysis should not lead us to paralysis, and some educational centers have taken the initiative and have found it crucial to install continuous monitoring systems in their classrooms. These systems allow for a simple way to validate the implemented ventilation protocol or even adjust it to ensure not only adequate CO₂ levels but also the necessary thermohygrometric comfort, which is key to the well-being of students and teachers during long teaching days. Furthermore, the survival and spread of a virus in an indoor space is also influenced by temperature and humidity conditions.
The German School of Zaragoza contacted us during the month of November 2020. Like all centers, they were clear about their commitment to the safety of their students and teachers , only their previous experience in the Frischluft Project (clean air) , a project for the 4th ESO ICT subject, had allowed them to become familiar with environmental diagnosis and the implementation of interconnected technology.
Following a test run with five meters during the last week of December, the school was finally equipped with 40 devices so that the return to classes after the Christmas break would allow the school to begin a new term monitoring CO₂ concentration, thermohygrometric comfort, and suspended particles down to 2.5 microns in size.
The 40 devices installed are the MICA Lite desktop version, with wall-mounting possible thanks to specific support. The school carried out the installation itself, with assistance from InBiot. Furthermore, these devices have a Public API , which has allowed the school to integrate the collected information into its own internal system. This means that the data collected by the monitoring device can be viewed on the My InBiot platform itself (one sample here ) and/ or integrated into another platform or internal data visualization system.
MICA Lite has a traffic light based on the CO₂ concentration , with measurements every minute, so that the green light indicates that CO₂ levels are lower than 800 ppm and ventilation would not be necessary , the yellow light reflects values between 800 and 1500 ppm that indicate the ventilation recommendation. By law, red, with values higher than 1500 ppm, is a clear indication of the ventilation deficit in the space.
At Biot, we rely on monitoring as a tool that allows us to act quickly and effectively to ensure adequate ventilation. If you need more information , we'd be happy to help.
