Today, we are grateful to have Douglas Green, Founder/President of GROK Energy Services, as our guest blogger. Please see his complete bio at the end of this blog post.
Managing Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) is an Art and a Science
Building Science is complex. Dedicated professionals spend many years developing their skills and expertise in this field, and they should be consulted when it comes to maintaining and upgrading school buildings. The important things being managed are very difficult to ‘measure’ with normal human senses. These include:
- Energy Use
- Air Quality
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Noise Levels
- Lighting
- Air movement
These are all the elements of indoor environmental quality (IEQ). When it comes to large, complex commercial buildings like schools, it takes a professional with considerable technical training and experience to properly measure and evaluate IEQ characteristics, then effectively correct deficiencies in order to maintain safe, comfortable, and healthy conditions.
The consequences of this critical task being underperformed or ignored are many, and can include:
- Short and long-term negative impacts on occupant health
- Increased risk of disease transmission
- Reduced productivity
- Occupant discomfort
- Higher rates of staff turnover
- Absenteeism;
- Reduced asset lifespans;
- Increased operating costs
- Structural damage or deterioration
Unfortunately, this is the point we, as a society, have reached with our public schools when it comes to operating and maintaining school facilities. To varying degrees, many of the above consequences are the day-to-day reality in most of our public schools, because the buildings simply have not been properly looked after, over a very long period of time.
A Critical Knowledge Gap Has Allowed IEQ in Schools to Deteriorate
For over two decades in Ontario, School Boards have been responsible for maintaining school buildings and safe, healthy IEQ (and all the ‘invisible’ elements that are part of that), while our provincial government has been responsible for providing the funding required to carry out this responsibility. In Ontario, provincial funding has been far less than required over this time and has resulted in a $16.3-billion repair backlog across Ontario schools. This model has also meant that frequently, local School Boards may not have the expertise required for every aspect of the details of maintaining school buildings, and safe, healthy IEQ. I am not suggesting that school boards do not have maintenance and engineering departments (they certainly do). However, there is sometimes a critical knowledge gap.
HVAC systems in buildings tend to be ‘out-of-sight and out-of-mind’, and thus easily ignored by those who do not fully understand the importance of good IEQ to occupant health, productivity, and safety. The negative impacts of this neglect can also be hard to quantify, sometimes taking years to become apparent. This contributes to the ease of dismissing industry-standard Operations & Maintenance recommendations. Chronic provincial underfunding, lengthy ‘lowest bidder’ tendering processes, and constantly ‘deferred’ tasks have allowed substantial deterioration to progress.
Focusing on the Long-term Goal of Healthier Buildings
As with many things in life, HVAC systems will appear to be ‘working fine’, until they aren’t. When an HVAC system fails, a building tends to get pretty uncomfortable, pretty quickly. Understandably, rapid response and repair is suddenly an urgent priority. Other, less sudden deficiencies like high energy consumption, ‘stuffiness’ in parts of the buildings, growing absenteeism, or declining asset lifespan, tend not to get as much urgent attention. And yet, these factors can cost a lot more money and cause a lot more harm in the long run.
Sometimes an unexpected change can finally shine a spotlight on something that has been neglected for a long time. When it comes to our school buildings, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is just such a change. It is now recognized by the health and scientific communities that a significant vector for infection by this potentially deadly pathogen is via airborne transmission in crowded indoor spaces. This fact has suddenly escalated the importance of having excellent IEQ in all buildings. Unfortunately, this is not quickly or easily achieved in many school buildings, after decades of neglected maintenance, upgrades, and replacements.
Meeting the Challenges of HVAC Upgrade and Repair
HVAC ducts and plumbing often run behind walls, and above ceilings, with major mechanical components often located in basements or on rooftops. Accessing many of the components of a large HVAC system in a commercial or industrial building for maintenance, upgrades, or replacement, is often a very invasive task. It is likely to involve opening up walls or ceilings, which in many older schools also means disturbing asbestos in the structures.
This is not something that can be done while the building is occupied and operational, on an ‘expedited’ basis. This is something that needs to be scheduled and completed while following industry-standard recommendations, at a cost that is easily determined and budgeted for well in advance.
Yet, it is precisely these types of tasks that have seen their budgets reduced or eliminated over the last several decades in our school buildings. These decisions have been made by people within the provincial government who simply do not understand these dynamics, because they lack the knowledge, or were not willing to follow guidance provided by subject matter experts.
In terms of dedicating budget to maintaining HVAC infrastructure, commercial buildings tend to fare better than schools, because the dynamics are very different. Unlike public school buildings, the management of commercial buildings tends to be handled by professionals with appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience who operate in a non-politicized, non-partisan manner. Commercial building owners are motivated by tenant retention and steady increases in net operating income – both of which increase asset value – so proper maintenance over time produces a positive financial return. While proper maintenance of school buildings produces the same results, Ontario’s provincial government has tended to avoid these costs, since there is no perceived ‘reasonable return on investment’.
Adapting our school buildings to help achieve resilience and recovery from COVID-19 is not going to be easy, but it is not impossible. Some changes may need to wait until buildings are unoccupied, but many other less disruptive things can be done immediately to improve IEQ in schools, such as:
- Evaluate ventilation systems to ensure correct operation and maximum outside air-flow
- Ensure adequate air movement in all indoor spaces
- Upgrade filtration where possible to MERV 13 or higher
- Install air sterilization technology;
- Review any existing air quality issues, and ensure resolution;
- Review control sequences to verify systems are operating to maximize indoor air quality, set to flush indoor air before and after occupation;
- Refer to “ASHRAE Reopening Schools and Universities C19 Guidance” for more detail
These steps can help improve IEQ and mitigate against potential localized accumulations of infected bioaerosols. [Note: Bioaerosols are small droplets suspended in the air, which is the specific condition that could result in COVID-19 transmission. Surface transmission is generally being well addressed already through enhanced cleaning regimes].
One of the biggest challenges is simply the number of schools needing immediate attention, compared to the number of Building Science professionals. Another reason why completing this work over time, on a scheduled maintenance basis, is the preferred approach.
Steps Forward to Making Classrooms Safer
Moving forward, it would be ideal to separate budgets for school building operations and maintenance, from the actual delivery of education within the school buildings. School buildings are public infrastructure assets, no different from highways and bridges. As such, they should be maintained so they function properly, last the expected lifetime, and provide a safe, healthy, and comfortable place for students and teachers.
Perhaps one way to accomplish this would be to place the Operations & Maintenance activities of school building infrastructure under federal jurisdiction to ensure a standard of good repair for all publicly funded schools in Canada, and to ensure stable, adequate funding required to ensure these standards are met. These separate activities with separate budgets, could each be managed by professionals with the right credentials. I am sure that educators and school boards be happy to be absolved of the responsibilities of school infrastructure so they can focus on what they do best – educating people. Operating and maintaining school buildings should not be a political activity, left to the whims of political election cycles. Instead, it should be funded properly and be left to HVAC and Building Science professionals so we can do what we do best – delivering the lowest operating costs and best IEQ dynamics, resulting in the most comfortable, productive, healthy, and safe spaces.
Author: Douglas Green, CEM, CMVP
Bio: Doug is a Certified Energy Manager (CEM) and Certified Measurement and Verification Professional (CMVP) accredited by the Association of Energy Engineers with more than a decade of direct experience working in energy management.