Interview: Healthy and comfortable to school, even in winter
Over the past two years, there has been an incredible amount of controversy about indoor air quality in schools. Various studies show that poor air quality negatively affects children’s learning performance. Moreover, poor ventilation promotes the spread of viruses, such as COVID-19. For good reason, last winter in many schools windows remained wide open and the heating was turned up. Whether this will still be an option next winter is doubtful. After all, this would create far too high energy bills. With winter approaching, many school boards are therefore at a crossroads. Which way should they go? Sjoerd Gersonius, Sales Director at Euromate, has the answer.
“For students to learn comfortably and safely, clean air is essential,” says Gersonius. “Worldwide, it has now been clearly demonstrated that the aerosol transmission pathway of COVID-19 is much larger than thought and is even the root cause of all infections. User areas such as offices, meeting rooms, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and schools in which several people are present for long periods of time and breathe the same air are particularly at risk. To become infected, a healthy person needs to inhale a minimal number of virus particles for only 15 minutes (!). Translate this to a classroom where about 30 students sit together from 8.30am to 3pm, corona outbreaks are inevitable this winter too. Unless appropriate action is taken.”
Ventilation is not sufficient
Over the past two years, much attention has been paid to the importance of ventilation in schools. The Dutch government has also introduced the SUVIS scheme to finance technical adaptations in this regard. Yet the problems are far from solved, Gersonius knows. “When a school meets the current Dutch Building Decree requirements for ventilation, the air is only changed one to one and a half times per hour. For safe and comfortable learning and working, however, a change of five to six times per hour is necessary. For example, to reduce pathogens (biological pathogens such as bacteria, viruses and fungi) in the air. In the latest school buildings, while ventilation is sufficient to balance CO2 and oxygen levels, it is not sufficient to protect children and teaching staff from pathogens.”
Costs skyrocket
To refresh the air every ten minutes, many schools open the windows. However, this costs a lot of energy, Gersonius knows. “We had an engineering firm calculate how much heat is lost to the outside on an average winter day. This firm came up with a loss of as much as 6 to 6.6 m3 of gas per classroom per day. Last winter, gas prices were not too bad. Back then, about EUR 3 of gas extra per day was consumed to keep the temperature in the classrooms acceptable. With today’s prices, however, these costs rise to around 22 euros per day. We have schools with about 12 classrooms in our database that spent an extra 50,000 euros on gas last year. Were they to follow the same strategy this year, they would end up with around 300,000 euros. That is no longer bearable.”
An air cleaner in every room
A solution for these schools could be to invest in a ventilation system that is five times more powerful than their current system, says Gersonius. “However, the installation industry has calculated that it will need until at least 2050 to retrofit all schools. The shortage of technicians, the scarcity of materials as well as the building modifications needed to do this cause huge delays. Instead, we recommend installing an air purifier. Our professional air cleaners use only 1 euro of energy per day per room. So with this, schools can save 21 euros per classroom per day, while comfort is raised to the highest level.” Combined with the purchase price, air purifiers are the excellent choice for schools, he stresses. “The Dutch government has made €360 million available for improving the indoor climate in schools. Would you invest this money in air cleaners, the vast majority of the 125,000 classrooms in our country could already have a professional air cleaner within now and one year. A study in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam within our House of Representatives shows that professional air purifiers reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection by as much as 90%. Surely no more motivation is needed?”
No heat loss
A popular air purifier in schools is Euromate’s Pure Air Shield (PAS) 3300. “This plug-and-play air cleaner, equipped with HEPA 14 filter, is powerful enough to get and keep an entire classroom clean,” says Gersonius. “For schools with a system ceiling, we also offer the VisionAir air purifiers, which can capture pollution in several places in the room.” All Euromate air cleaners are certified by reputable independent bodies and continuously filter viruses, bacteria, fine dust, pollen and odours from the air. “Because warm indoor air is drawn in instead of cold outdoor air, no heat loss occurs. In fact, heat is better distributed through the room. Moreover, our air cleaners operate whisper quietly. As the devices are available in different versions, a suitable solution is offered for every room.”
Contact
Would you like to know more about our solutions? Then contact us via +31 (0)76-5789580 of request@euromate.com.
