Do new and renovated schools and kindergartens secure sufficiently high indoor environmental quality?

The present work is the part of the RENEW SCHOOL project granted by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme supported by European Commission. The aim is to promote sustainable renovation of educational buildings (schools and kindergartens) that use timber facades. The paper describes the measurements in educational buildings that are newly constructed or that have undergone energy renovation and use timber facades. The purpose of the measurements was to examine the quality of indoor environment in these buildings. The quality was assessed by physical measurements of temperature, relative humidity, light intensity and carbon dioxide concentration performed for a period of up to two month between January and April 2015. The measurements were carried out in one representative classroom in each building. The pupils assessed the classroom environment and rated the intensity of their acute health symptoms. Additionally the teachers assessed the environment in these buildings. To create the reference, measurements were also carried out in five conventional educational buildings, where no renovations were performed. The results suggest that the renovated and new buildings perform more or less similar as their conventional counterparts as regards measured parameters of indoor environment. Subjective evaluations made by pupils and teachers did not always match the physical measurements. There were also differences in subjective evaluations made by children and by teachers. In conclusion, there is no indication that the renovation of educational buildings would reduce indoor environmental quality conditions. Likewise, no considerable improvements are to be expected as well.