Students' perceived thermal comfort : due to the ventilation systems in schools

Good air quality in classrooms supports children's learning ability. Poor IAQ in schools influences the performance and attendance of students, primarily through health effects from indoor pollutants [1}. Besides the air quality in schools the thermal environment in schools is becoming a growing concern [2,3,4}, Already in 1996 a nationwide, on-line web-based survey was held in the United States by Sonne et.al [5}. Most responses were directly on-line, with a few obtained by phone. There were 239 total respondents (0.25 % response rate)' There was at least one response from each of 46 states. Temperature was by far the greatest comfort complaint in regular classrooms, with 50.5 % of respondents indicating 'many" or ''chronic'' problems. At 22.5 % of respondents, temperature was by far the greatest cause of chronic complaints, followed by IAQ humidity and odours see figure 1.