Understanding the air inside Sint-Rembert School

Sint-Rembert School

Schools sit in an interesting position when it comes to indoor air quality — high occupancy, limited ventilation control, and a population that spends most of their day breathing whatever the building gives them. When Sint-Rembert school in Torhout, Flanders wanted to understand what was actually happening with the air inside their classrooms, Airscan ran a full diagnostic campaign to find out, then turned those findings into a practical improvement plan the school could act on.

The Brief

Sint-Rembert school needed a clear picture of indoor air quality conditions across the building, with particular attention to CO2 levels given the high-occupancy nature of classroom environments. The results were to be shared with school leadership and used to guide improvement decisions.

What We Did

Airscan conducted an air quality diagnosis using monitoring devices equipped with five sensor types, measuring particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), alongside comfort parameters including temperature and humidity. CO2 received particular focus, as it is the most reliable proxy for ventilation adequacy in occupied classroom spaces. The team also assessed how outdoor pollution levels were contributing to indoor conditions — an often-overlooked factor in urban school environments.

How It Works

A diagnostic campaign of this kind builds a time-stamped record of how pollutant concentrations move through the day: how CO2 climbs as classrooms fill up, how particulates and VOCs respond to activity and airflow, and how outdoor air quality bleeds in when windows are opened or ventilation systems draw from outside. That full picture — indoor dynamics and outdoor influence together — is what allows the recommendations that follow to be genuinely targeted rather than generic.

Outcomes

The measurement results were used to develop a cost-effective indoor air quality improvement plan tailored to the school’s specific conditions. Findings were presented directly to the school director, teachers, and prevention manager, ensuring the people responsible for the building and the people working in it both had the context to act on them.

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