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WCPSS May Not Meet NC's Outdated Minimum Ventilation Standards

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Guest Post by Edderic Ugaddan, Senior Data Scientist, Quant at People's CDC We show that for this particular classroom, WCPSS doesn’t appear to meet NC’s outdated minimum ventilation standards of 7.5 CFM/person. How? We use CO2 readings. People exhale a lot of CO2. How high CO2 concentrations go in a room is affected by the ventilation rate, occupancy of the room, activity of the individuals, and age. https://t.co/McbXYFZv3l For this classroom which had 17 3rd graders and 1 teacher, to meet code of 7.5 CFM/person, we expect the steady-state CO2 concentration (i.e. horizontally flat section) to be just below 1500ppm (see red line) The blue line is the CO2 curve associated with the more modern ASHRAE 62.1-2022 ventilation standard for classrooms of ~13-15 CFM/person, which is code in most places. However, in the first few hours in this graph, the recorded CO2 concentration was above the 1500 ppm limit line, even reaching more than 2x the limit! Occupancy stayed the same (16 3rd grad
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Parent Post: Story of Air Quality and Why It Matters

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By Jaime Erickson, Parent at Scott's Ridge Elementary, Wake County Public Schools If you’d have told me a month ago, I’d soon know acronyms like IAQ, PPM, CFM, and ASHRAE, I’d have said – that tracks.  I’m an obsessive learner.  Over the last several weeks, I’ve learned more than I wanted to know about indoor air quality (IAQ) standards (lacking), guidelines (also lacking), measurements (confusing), and recommendations (clear as day). After sorting through websites, scientific journals, HVAC documentation, and a slew of other resources, I didn’t become an air quality expert, just a better-informed parent. There’s still so much I don’t know. But here’s what I do:  Indoor Air Quality is a Thing that Matters to Me (and it should to you, too) The EPA has a great primer on why IAQ is important, especially in schools . But the short of it is this: we spend most of our time indoors.  Good IAQ means we breathe good, well-ventilated air that’s free of pollutants that can lead to health ef
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Parent CO2 Data Graphs from Wake County Schools

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Graphs and data below are based on the parent-led carbon dioxide measurements in Wake County. Press release here.  **Additional graphs are being added as we make the school names public.** Find raw data for schools on our GitHub repository . Please remember: We do not claim to be HVAC professionals or experts. However, recent Wake County Public School data from a portable classroom at Scott's Ridge Elementary is in line with the data we are seeing in our portable classroom monitoring.  Follow us on Twitter .  Join us on Facebook . Email us to connect. Schools with data coming soon: WCPSS - Poe Elementary WCPSS - Scotts Ridge Elementary WCPSS - Douglas Elementary Wake County Public Schools - District 9 Elementary School 01 - Salem Elementary Student 1 - Portable Building Elementary School 02 - Weatherstone Elementary Student 1 - Portable Building Elementary School 03 - Kingswood Elementary Student 1 - Main Building Elementary School 04 - Briarcliff Elementary Student 1 - Main Buil
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Parent-Led Carbon Dioxide Measurements Raise Concerns About Air Quality and COVID-19 Risks in Wake County Schools

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A grassroots group of parents, the NC Alliance for School Equity & Safety (NCASES), publicly released thousands of parent-led air quality measurements taken over several weeks in Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) classrooms and an area Charter.  “The air quality we measured in these schools, and in particular older buildings and portables, were quite alarming to us,” Kira Kroboth said. “We feel a responsibility to share with both the schools and the public. We hope they will do their own assessments, report their results and fix what they find.”  New CDC guidance on safely running schools continues to recommend upgrading heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to minimize the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Federal monies through several programs, such as the Department of Education and the Governor’s Emergency Relief Fund, can be used to pay for these upgrades. “HVAC upgrades are the least divisive COVID mitigation strategy,” Kroboth said. “
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