A Breath of Fresh Air for Students

Providing the correct amount of ventilation to a space is very important. In fact, a study by the Berkeley Lab has found a clear correlation between the amount of ventilation provided to a classroom and the number of student absences, based on data collected from schools across California. For two years, attendance records were reviewed and carbon dioxide levels in classrooms were measured. In classrooms with higher levels of carbon dioxide, absentee rates increased. The overall finding from the study noted that increasing the ventilation rate by 2 cubic feet per minute (cfm) per person decreased illness absences by 1.6 percent.

Reducing absenteeism helps a student scholastically and additionally helps the school financially when it is funded on an attendance-linked basis. Properly ventilating a building is a minor increased energy cost, however it is vastly overshadowed by the health and wellness benefits, as well as the reduction of costs associated with sick students and staff.

Properly ventilating a building is imperative. At Millies Engineering, we thoroughly engineer facility airflows and amounts of outside air to provide comfortable, healthy and well ventilated spaces.

To learn more about the Berkeley Lab study visit http://tinyurl.com/ku2uvy2