Health and cognitive performance in UK school classrooms is dependent on building fabric performance as well as heating and ventilation system operation in maintaining Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ), comprising thermal comfort and air quality. While archetype models can be used to simulate IEQ for different stock-wide location and construction eras, a predictive approach also necessitates the use of longitudinal scenarios. As a key component of the UK’s decarbonisation strategy, these scenarios should account for fabric retro-fit adaptations to reduce carbon emissions, and changes in operation of the building for overheating mitigation as well as changes in external climatic conditions.
The IEQ of three representative classroom archetypes, representing the stock of 18,000 English schools, have been analysed for 24 pair-wise retro-fit and operational scenarios across three climatic scenarios. Retro-fitting, while effective in reducing energy demand, may risk compromising indoor air by requiring ventilation at times of the day when external conditions are least conducive to air quality and overheating. Additionally, while North facing classrooms can tackle overheating through single effective IEQ mitigation measures, South facing and 2080 climates will necessitate cumulative effects of multiple measures to be realised. Future work involves incorporating educational and construction stakeholder preferences through multi-criteria decision analysis, to derive suitable metrics
