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Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is a broad term that addresses the complete spectrum of indoor environmental factors: light quality, air quality (including temperature, humidity, odors, and pollutants), and acoustics. Recognizing that the primary goal of school programs is to educate students, it is important to emphasize how good IEQ is essential to these educational goals. There is
now considerable empirical research explicitly connecting high performance
building characteristics and student productivity. Students in classrooms that are quiet, well lit, and properly ventilated with healthy air will learn faster because they are more comfortable, can see and hear better, and are less distracted. Suboptimal lighting, deficient acoustics, and poor indoor air quality are barriers to education. High performance schools remove these barriers, allowing teachers and students to work under the best possible conditions. Discussed below are the primary areas of concern affecting student health and productivity: daylighting, indoor air quality, acoustics, commissioning, and maintenance. For more information on any of these items, please consult BPM Volume II: Design. DaylightingIt is well known that light has profound effects on humans. New research shows a direct link between daylighting and increased learning in students. In a 1999 study , the Heschong Mahone Group
found a statistically compelling connection between daylighting and student
performance. It isolates daylighting as an illumination source,
and separates illumination effects from other qualities associated with
daylighting from windows. These benefits could be caused by a variety of effects including: increased visibility, improved student health, elevated mood, better behavior, reduction in the effects of daylight deprivation, and higher arousal levels. Around half of a school utility bill in California pays for lighting. Because of this, lighting systems are often identified as a priority in energy-conserving measures and programs. Daylighting saves energy, and therefore money,
in two ways. Most obviously, lights that are off are not using
energy. But lights that are off are also not generating heat, allowing
the air conditioners to be downsized, work less, and save energy. As straightforward as these advantages appear, they do not just happen. The design team must work together using the principles of integrated design to maximize the effectiveness of daylighting systems, and the building occupants need to be educated about how the systems work. Your lighting options range from no-cost and low-cost choices to sophisticated state-of-the-art systems. Communicate your goals clearly with your design team, and arrive at a solution that fits your budget. For more detailed information and best practice design strategies, see the Daylighting Chapter in Part II of the BPM Volume II: Design. Air QualityIndoor air quality is vitally important to schools today. Nothing less than the health of the students and staff are at stake. For years, news reports, scientific inquiries, and educational efforts have communicated the symptoms, causes, and solutions of indoor air quality problems. Indoor pollutants such as chemical toxins and biological agents can create significant health risks and adverse learning conditions. Pollutants can affect a range of body systems and impact health, learning, productivity, and self-esteem. Health effects can be both transient and long-term, and may not affect all of classroom occupants in the same way. Symptoms range from mild discomfort and the perception of bothersome odors to severe illness and permanent injury. Health effects include increased rates of infectious diseases (e.g., influenza and the common cold), eye and respiratory irritation, allergies and asthma, chronic sinusitis, headaches, and an array of other respiratory diseases. Environmental factors such as light quality, acoustics, and overcrowding may also contribute to, or create, similar problems. A key point for the concern over Indoor Environmental
Quality (IEQ) problems in schools is that children are believed to be
much more vulnerable than adults to environmental contaminants and injury
. Relative to their size, children's breathing rates and metabolic
rates are significantly faster than adults. Hence, children will breath
in and metabolize greater doses of airborne toxins than adults in the
same environment. Because children's bodies are actively growing, they
absorb and retain more of these toxins. Their defense mechanisms are less
effective to prevent contaminants and infectious organisms from entering
their bodies, and their immune systems are less able to respond when agents
do enter. Exposures to common molds and damp environments
have been associated with childhood respiratory illnesses, such as persistent
wheeze, attacks of shortness of breath, and bronchitis. Molds typically
cause health problems when large quantities of airborne spores are inhaled. Across the country, student and staff populations have seen sharp increases
in both the prevalence and severity of asthma. Rates in urban areas have
been especially high. This means an increasing number of students and
staff are coming into the classroom with already highly sensitized respiratory
systems. In addition, IEQ has an indirect, yet profound,
effect on learning. Inadequate ventilation leads to the buildup
of carbon dioxide and other indoor pollutants, which are often associated
with discomfort and the inability to concentrate. Exposures to volatile
organic compounds (VOC's) and other indoor pollutants can cause a range
of acute symptoms at relatively low concentrations. Eye and respiratory
irritation are the most common complaint. These indoor contaminants can
also cause headaches, mental confusion, behavioral problems, and fatigue—all
of which diminish students' ability to concentrate or assimilate information.
Among asthmatics, the increased need for medication (often with sedating
side effects), exacerbations of asthma attacks, and related absences further
undermine education in affected classrooms. A recent report from Lawrence Berkeley National Labs summarized the history
of school investigations initiated by health symptoms and/or environmental
complaints.
The BPM Volume III: Criteria and the BPM Volume II: Design cover all of the design issues relevant to ensuring superior indoor air quality. AcousticsWhen noise levels in the classroom are too high, students and teachers
lose the ability to intelligibly understand each other. Typical sources
are outdoor sounds (traffic, airplanes, etc.), loud air conditioning and
ventilation systems, and internal noise from other school spaces. The
teacher and student's inability to hear one another directly affects student
performance. Teachers must sometimes resort to shutting off
the ventilation systems because they are too loud, which can have the
unfortunate side effects of reducing indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Recognition of the widespread acoustic problems in America are spurring developments of a national minimum acoustical standard for classrooms which may be enforced under the auspices of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Typical low-first cost air-conditioning systems used throughout California do not meet the recommended levels for background noise. Location of HVAC equipment, duct design and internal surface choices all contribute to the overall acoustic performance of the space. CommissioningThe process of quality control and verification
in public buildings is known as commissioning. It is a powerful
tool because it can prove if the designers and contractors have done what
you have hired them to do. The district then has the authority to make
them fix it up front instead of dealing with maintenance problems or poor
performance down the road. In many ways, commissioning is similar to a "test run" or "systems
check." It tests, verifies, and fine tunes the performance of key
building systems so that the highest levels of performance are achieved.
Correctly implemented it should improve the building delivery process,
increase systems reliability, improve energy performance, ensure good
indoor environmental quality, and improve operation and maintenance of
the facility. All building systems can be commissioned. The important components are:
Documentation. Ensure that all required
documentation has been provided, such as the design intent, and operating
protocols for all building systems. Thought Transfer. Prepare comprehensive
operation and maintenance manuals, coupled with training of building operations
staff. Installation checks. Checking installed
equipment to ensure that all associated equipment and accessories are
in place. Operational checks.
Verify and document that the system is performing as expected, and that
all of the sensors and other system control devices are calibrated properly,
and Ongoing monitoring. Properly implemented such a plan will ensure that a new school starts its life cycle at the highest performance level possible. However, building commissioning is not yet common practice. It is therefore important that areas of responsibility in the process, particularly who will bear the cost of correcting conditions that do not meet specifications, are clearly spelled out in the very beginning. For more detailed information please see BPM Volume V: Commissioning . Maintenance Effective maintenance is fundamentally important
to sustaining the performance of all building systems. Student health
and productivity can be affected when building systems fail to operate
as designed. Sub-standard maintenance usually results from
a combination of factors. First, maintenance budgets are often the first
to be reduced or eliminated when money becomes tight. Second, minimal
thought transfer from the designers and contractors to the building staff
is typically completed. Finally, schools lose their institutional knowledge
of the building systems as turnover and lack of communication occurs throughout
the life of the building. High Performance Schools are maintenance friendly. Building systems are easy to maintain, and reduced operating costs from energy-efficient design frees money that could be directed to support maintenance efforts. Additionally, high performance design urges the clear identification of roles, responsibilities, and budget to ensure that important maintenance information is transferred to the building occupants and not lost in the rush between construction and occupancy. For more detailed information please see BPM Volume IV: M&O .
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