How smart CO2 monitoring from Novacene helps East Renfrewshire Council ensure compliance
While the pandemic brings attention to the subject of ventilation within classrooms, poor airflow is by no means a new problem.
Research underlines the powerful relationship between air quality and learning outcomes. High CO2 levels associated with poor airflow, for example, increase the risk of drowsiness and headaches - reducing productivity and increasing absenteeism.
Conventional CO2 monitoring allows for providers to identify when and where spikes occur, however gathering and utilising this data can be time-consuming.
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“Novacene provides us the real-time overview and historic data we need to ensure optimal energy efficiency and internal air quality.”
Delivering a quick, considered response
East Renfrewshire Council (ERC) in Scotland manages 47 schools - including three of the country’s top 10 performers.
Like many schools across the UK, its team sought a smart monitoring solution to ensure maximum safety and productivity in its classrooms.
ERC needed to act quickly. With winter quickly approaching and COVID-19 transmission rates climbing, they turned to IoT experts at Novacene for the data-driven insights needed to confirm across every ERC learning establishment.
Staggered implementation, immediate results
Working in close partnership with ERC, the team at Novacene developed a three-phase strategy, implemented over a three-week period.
Engineers began by digitising the floor plans for each school, creating ‘digital twins’ for each. Smart planning like this ensures minimal disruptions once engineers arrive on site. Novacene’s team installed a total of 2,500 smart, wireless sensors in learning areas across ERC’s 47 schools. Dynamic by design, the sensors, which can be found in all learning areas, gather data including: CO2, temperature and humidity levels.
Once live, data gathered by sensors provides ERC with a true overview of air quality within its learning areas. Within just three days of installation, ERC managers were able to prioritise the specific schools and classrooms in need of immediate intervention.
Within one week of live data tracking’s launch, Novacene compiled reports on the overall portfolio of schools, as well as one for each individual school offering a detailed analysis of air quality in all learning areas.
Values gained
● Insights and actionable data as quickly as 3 days from install
● Detailed analysis of air quality in all learning areas within 1 week of live data tracking
● Meets/exceeds Department of Education Scotland statutory requirements for indoor air
quality in schools (similar to UKBB101)
Client feedback
“Novacene provides us the real-time overview and historic data we need to ensure optimal energy efficiency and internal air quality.
“As well as providing us with a centralised overview, Novacene’s proven approach gives us information we need - at granular level - to ensure that individual schools and spaces within them are performing their best.”
Looking ahead
Novacene’s sophisticated AI continues to allow ERC the opportunity - in real-time - to identify emerging patterns and trends within the air quality data gathered across all 47 schools. Ongoing work with ERC’s experts ensures efficient identification of ways to boost airflow.
Recognising the relationship between CO2 and energy use, the team at Novacene is also working with ERC’s energy specialists to provide them with a better understanding of school energy usage.
Through this important work, the two teams are implementing and creating the solutions necessary to reduce consumption and waste of energy.
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