Creating a Healthy Indoor Climate in Schools

Building, Indoor Climate, Knowledge center
January 6, 2025

This article focuses on four central areas, exploring how to establish a healthy indoor climate in schools across the country.

The article A Healthy School Environment: The Role of Indoor Climate in Learning and Wellbeing highlights why it is essential to prioritise a good indoor climate in the construction and renovation of schools and educational spaces.

In this article, we examine how to improve the indoor climate through four key focus areas:

Thermal indoor climate
Atmospheric indoor climate
Acoustic indoor climate
Visual indoor climate

Each section reviews building regulations for the specific area and presents recommended solutions for achieving an optimal indoor climate in schools.

Thermal Indoor Climate

The thermal indoor climate is typically influenced by factors such as air temperature, draughts, and radiant temperature. According to building regulations, rooms must maintain a thermal environment that is satisfactory for both health and comfort, depending on their intended use and activity.

The guidelines specify:

For buildings other than residences, the builder must determine the maximum number of hours per year during which the operative room temperature may exceed 26°C and 27°C, respectively. For many types of buildings with use patterns similar to offices, no more than 100 hours above 26°C and 25 hours above 27°C annually is usually acceptable.

As noted in A Healthy School Environment: The Role of Indoor Climate in Learning and Wellbeing, temperature significantly impacts both students’ and teachers’ performance, whether a room is too hot or too cold. While building regulations set limits on maximum temperatures, there are no specific requirements for minimum temperatures.

DAMPA® Climate Ceiling – Ensuring the Right Temperature

Our DAMPA® Climate Ceiling offers a comfortable indoor climate with excellent acoustics and stable temperatures.

A climate ceiling, also known as a cooling/heating ceiling, uses water-transporting elements to regulate room temperature via radiation. Radiant heat always moves from warmer to cooler objects. Practically, this means that when cold water flows through the ceiling pipes, it absorbs the room’s heat, cooling the space as cooler air radiates downward.

Unlike traditional cooling/heating methods that adjust air temperature by replacing it with pre-cooled or heated air, the climate ceiling provides individualised cooling. Here, the average surface temperature of the room’s materials determines how heat is transferred to the ceiling.

The perceived temperature is influenced by the temperature of various surfaces in the room.

Example:
In a room with an air temperature of 29°C and an average surface temperature of 23.7°C across the floor, walls, and ceiling, the perceived temperature is calculated as:
(23.7 + 29) ÷ 2 = 26.35°C.

Thus, the perceived temperature is 26.35°C.

In addition to improving the indoor climate, climate ceilings allow for significantly smaller ventilation systems, reducing both construction height and operational costs, as they require minimal maintenance.

Learn more about DAMPA® Climate Ceiling and watch our animation here.

Atmospheric Indoor Climate

The atmospheric indoor climate concerns air quality, which depends on factors such as:

Oxygen and humidity levels
Odours
Pollution from people, furniture, and building materials

Building regulations include several provisions for atmospheric indoor climate, such as:

Pollutants from building materials must not compromise indoor air quality, causing health risks or discomfort.
Buildings must be ventilated to ensure satisfactory air quality and humidity levels for their intended use.
Air supply and extraction systems must prevent draughts in rooms where people spend extended periods.
Rooms in day-care institutions, classrooms, and similar spaces must have ventilation systems to ensure air quality.
In classrooms and similar spaces where people are the primary source of pollution, CO2 levels in the indoor air must not exceed 1,000 ppm under design conditions.

See everything regarding ventilation in the Building Regulations here.

Efficient ventilation is critical to students’ and teachers’ well-being, as poor air quality can cause drowsiness and concentration difficulties.

Diffuse Ventilation – Fresh Air Without Draughts or Noise

Air exchange is a typical solution for atmospheric indoor climate challenges, as it dilutes and removes airborne pollutants.

At DAMPA, we recommend diffuse ventilation. This method creates overpressure above the ceiling surface, distributing fresh air evenly through perforations in the ceiling. The pressure is so low that it is silent, yet the air is evenly dispersed throughout the room.

DAMPA’s acoustic metal ceilings work seamlessly with diffuse ventilation, using existing perforations to distribute fresh air.

Learn more about diffuse ventilation here.

Acoustic Indoor Climate

This area focuses on acoustics in classrooms, group rooms, and communal spaces. The aim is to reduce noise and ensure speech intelligibility, especially in teaching environments.

Building regulations specify requirements for sound insulation, noise from traffic, and technical installations, as well as room acoustics, including reverberation times and absorption areas. In the guidelines, you can find the specific requirements for educational buildings. Find them here.

Poor acoustic conditions negatively affect concentration, sleep, and stress levels, making it vital to establish an acoustic environment that supports both learning and teaching.

Durable Acoustic Solutions in Metal

Acoustics may not be visible or tangible, but they are a crucial factor in overall well-being.

Creating the best acoustic conditions in schools requires considering the room’s purpose and layout. For example, in classrooms, students at both the front and back need to hear the teacher clearly, without excessive noise.

The most effective solution is a fully covered acoustic ceiling. DAMPA offers metal ceiling options in acoustic classes A, B, and C, tailored to specific needs.

Depending on the room’s design and purpose, it is not always sufficient to rely solely on sound-absorbing materials in the ceiling. An acoustic rule of thumb suggests that walls should be covered with sound-absorbing materials equivalent to approximately 10–20% of the floor area, depending on the room’s layout and function.

For existing rooms, acoustic wall panels provide a quick and cost-effective way to enhance acoustics without replacing the entire ceiling.

Learn more about DAMPA’s acoustic solutions for the wall here.

Visual Indoor Climate

The visual indoor climate includes factors such as daylight, light distribution, outdoor views, and artificial lighting.

Building regulations require:

Workspaces, classrooms, and similar rooms must have windows providing views of the surroundings.
Daylight access should be documented with a glass area at least 10% of the floor area, free from shading.

Seamless Integration and Elegant Design

At DAMPA, we believe that proper lighting enhances a room’s functionality, aesthetics, and indoor climate.

We also believe in focusing on what we do best. That’s why we collaborate with a range of skilled lighting manufacturers who contribute essential knowledge and expertise in the field, ensuring you receive the perfect solution for your project.

Our partners design and deliver light fixtures specifically tailored for integration into DAMPA’s metal ceiling solutions. This allows us to combine lighting, functionality, and elegant design into a single cohesive solution.

Balancing the Four Indoor Climate Areas

In the building regulations, you will find requirements that must be met as a minimum. However, it is always possible to go beyond these standards if desired.

It is important to note that the four areas also influence one another and interact in various ways.

For example, the thermal indoor climate will affect the atmospheric indoor climate, as temperature changes often influence the air in a space in one way or another.

Similarly, the visual indoor climate will impact the thermal indoor climate if large window sections are chosen. This, in turn, will also affect the acoustic indoor climate, as large glass panels are hard surfaces that reflect sound into the room.

In the specific case of school construction, the four focus areas of indoor climate must be carefully balanced. There needs to be a consideration of requirements, priorities, and the allocation of resources and budget to create an optimal balance in each instance.

This balance must ensure the best possible indoor climate for the resources used, both from a financial and a resource-efficiency perspective.

Key Takeaways

A good indoor climate requires attention to thermal, atmospheric, acoustic, and visual factors.
The thermal indoor climate is improved by maintaining a stable temperature and minimising draughts.
DAMPA® Climate Ceilings offer energy-efficient temperature control with low maintenance requirements.
Air quality is influenced by oxygen levels, humidity, odours, and materials, necessitating effective ventilation.
Diffuse ventilation ensures fresh air without draughts or noise, utilising the existing perforations in DAMPA’s metal ceilings.
The acoustic indoor climate is enhanced with noise-reducing ceilings and sound-absorbing wall panels. DAMPA’s solutions can be delivered in acoustic classes A, B, or C.
Good acoustics are essential for concentration, learning, and well-being in educational spaces.
The visual indoor climate is ensured with adequate daylight, views, and appropriate electric lighting.
DAMPA integrates lighting design into their metal ceiling solutions to combine functionality and aesthetics.
The four areas of indoor climate influence one another and must be carefully balanced to achieve optimal conditions in school construction projects.