Examination of thermal comfort and air quality in four new energy efficient schools in Luxembourg with and without mechanical ventilation

A study was conducted in four new energy efficient schools in Luxembourg with excellent primary energy consumption values, where the indoor thermal comfort and the air quality was assessed by technical measurements and by surveys. Two schools were equipped with mechanical ventilation with heat recovery and two were without, i.e. ventilation there was manually controlled by opening the windows. Further to the C02-concentration as indicator for the air quality all other important comfort parameters were measured, why the well-known indicators according to FANGER could be calculated, i.e. the „Predicted Mean Vote (PMV)“ and the „Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD)“. The individual perceived indoor comfort was analyzed by standardized questionnaires for a period of four weeks. One aim of the study was to compare natural ventilation by opening and closing the windows with the mechanical ventilation in all named aspects. In total there was a good agreement between the measurements and the survey. The results show that in general mechanical ventilation in schools lead to better physical measured values and to better subjective perception of the users. However those buildings suffer from a very low relative humidity, though it is rarely sensed by the occupants. Furthermore, in one of the mechanically ventilated buildings the air velocity was very high and led to draft-perception. The detected air temperature was heterogeneous and independent of the ventilation concept, leading to an individual judgement of PMV for the different buildings. Users should always have the possibility of interaction and control to adjust the indoor climate according to their individual needs and to correct smaller technical shortcomings

Mapping inequalities in school attendance:The relationship between dimensions of socioeconomic status and forms of school absence

In this article, we investigated whether and to what extent various dimensions of socioeconomic background (parental education, parental class, free school meal registration, housing status, and neighborhood deprivation) predict overall school absences and different reasons for absenteeism (truancy, sickness, family holidays and temporary exclusion) among 4,620 secondary school pupils in Scotland. Students were drawn from a sample of the Scottish Longitudinal Study comprising linked Census data and administrative school records. Using fractional logit models and logistic regressions, we found that all dimensions of socioeconomic background were uniquely linked to overall absences. Multiple measures of socioeconomic background were also associated with truancy, sickness-related absence, and temporary exclusion. Social housing and parental education had the most pervasive associations with school absences across all forms of absenteeism. Our findings highlight the need to consider the multidimensionality of socioeconomic background in policy and research decisions on school absenteeism. A more explicit focus on narrowing the socioeconomic gap in absenteeism is required to close the inequality gap in educational and post-school outcomes