Nearly zero energy schools: their systems, energy use and perceived indoor air quality

In the last decade, significant growth has been recorded in the numbers of sustainable schools in the Netherlands. Sustainable schools are characterized by low energy consumption as well as the use of renewable energy sources. While the goal of improving the energy performance of schools is crucial, achieving overall performance improvement in terms of both energy and comfort is also of uttermost importance given that the primary role of a building is the provision of a comfortable working and living safe. In this paper, results from ongoing research on sustainable and nearly-Zero Energy School Buildings (nZEB in the Netherlands are presented. The paper analyses the energy performance of the schools as well as the comfort performace with particular focus on both Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) and thermal comfort. The obtained results from this research was compared with those of earlier evaluation conducted in the selected sustainable schools. The result from the research indicates that in some situations, while the energy performace of the schools compared
favourably with that of the design performance, however the comfort performace of the schools deviated considerably from the design performance particularly as it relates to IAQ