In the next few years, school districts will spend tens
of billions of dollars constructing new school facilities,
and enlarging and renovating existing schools.
The information available here is presented as a tool to help school districts and facility planners design the next generation of
learning environments so that the school facility will help - rather than hinder - schools in achieving their core mission of educating children.
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is a critically important aspect of creating and maintaining school facilities. IAQ Design Tools for Schools provides
both detailed guidance as well as links to other information resources to help design new schools as well as repair, renovate and maintain existing
facilities. Though its primary focus is on indoor air quality, it is also intended to encourage school districts to embrace the concept of
designing High Performance Schools, an integrated, "whole building" approach to addressing a myriad of
important – and sometimes competing – priorities, such as energy efficiency, indoor air quality, day-lighting, materials efficiency, and safety, and
doing so in the context of tight budgets and limited staff.
Preliminary Design Phases
Building a school with indoor air quality that supports
the school in its primary mission of educating children
requires attention to indoor air quality issues from the very
beginning of the process.
Controlling Pollutants and
Sources
To protect indoor environmental quality, the designer
must understand indoor air quality problems and seek to
eliminate potential sources of contamination that originate
from outdoors as well as indoors.
Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) Systems
The main purposes of an HVAC system are to maintain good
indoor air quality and provide thermal comfort, two key
requirements for high performance schools. HVAC systems are
among the largest energy consumers in schools.
Moisture Control
Moisture can trigger the growth of mold that can not
only damage the school facility, but can lead to health
and performance problems for students and staff.
Construction
Poor job-site construction practices can frustrate even the best design by
allowing moisture and other contaminants to become potential long term
problems. Preventive job-site practices will reduce the potential for residual problems
with indoor air quality in the completed building and reduce undue
health risks for workers.
Commissioning
If building materials, equipment, and systems aren’t
installed properly or aren’t operating as intended, the
health, productivity, and other benefits of high performance
design will not be achieved. Building commissioning is a
quality assurance program that is intended to show that the
building is constructed and performs as designed.
Renovation and Repair of Existing Schools
You can minimize problems during renovation and repair by
making good indoor air quality
one of the criteria during project planning. Contract language and negotiations with service
providers (contractors) can help ensure that proper
materials and procedures are used, such as performing work
during unoccupied periods in the school.
Operations and Maintenance
Effective maintenance and operations procedures are
fundamentally important to sustaining the performance of all
building systems. Student health and productivity can suffer when building systems fail to operate as designed.
Portable (Relocatable) Classrooms
Portable -- or "relocatable" -- classrooms have been
a feature of many school districts for years. In
reality, portable classrooms are seldom moved and become
permanent fixtures of the school. The effects of poor indoor
air quality in portable classrooms are no different from
those in permanent classrooms.
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