From frustration to success – a digital solution for great flexibility
85% less complaints - curious?
Jump straight to our data presenting the great success at Viktoriaskolan.
A newly built school with indoor climate challenges
Viktoriaskolan in Skara, Sweden, is the most recently built school in this southwestern municipality as it opened its doors at the start of the fall semester in 2017. The school accomodates 600 students from 7th to 9th grade within its 11 000 square meters, which include educational facilites as well as a gym and an industrial kitchen.
Despite the fact that Viktoriaskolan is a newly constructed building, it faced significant challenges with the indoor climate. Both students and teachers expressed their dissatisfaction and the property manager ended up considering closing the school.
Room for improvement
As said, the indoor climate was nearly to anyones' satisfaction and the ventilation installation got much of the blame. After years of trying and several measures taken to try to solve the issue, the property manager was still in doubt.
The indoor climate solution was a Swegon installation and, as a last resort, our skillful and knowledgeable technicians were asked to take a look. We started off with a comprehensive overview of the indoor climate solution to give ourselves a full picture. We found no issues in terms of functionality, but there were still quite a few things we could turn to, and our digital services were key for turning the negative trend at Viktoriaskolan.
Blog: Why leave the indoor climate to chance?
A digital renovation for gathering data
Following the overview of the property, we decided to address the indoor climate issues by renovating the system for demand controlled ventilation (DCV), our Swegon WISE. This is primarily a digital renovation, nevertheless it requires a SuperWISE II to be complemented to the existing SuperWISE I.
SuperWISE II reads and writes to existing, one or more, SuperWISE I via Modbus and it can manage up to 60 air handling units and/or SuperWISE I. This means that WISE II gathers data from all installed units in a way not possible before. With WISE II in place, we agreed with the property manager to add services from Swegon INSIDE. This to improve the level of analysis and allow for visualisation of the indoor climate.
Let us explain demand controlled ventilation (DCV)
Here is more about the digital renovation of WISEDigital services to solve the problem
We gather a set of digital service under the name of Swegon INSIDE. These serives allow for different stakeholders to monitor, control and visualise either parameters for the indoor climate or the performance of compatible units of the indoor climate solution, or both.
Our INSIDE services allow for adjustments to be made to ensure a healthy and comfortable indoor environment, to minimise the environmental strain and to benefit building economics. In the case of Viktoriaskolan, INSIDE Analytics showed that all indoor climate parameters were good, which made us understand that there was probably draughts, direct heating from the sun light or a perception among students and teachers that caused a negative perception of the indoor climate.
Adjustments for a better indoor climate
This far into the process, we decided to make sure that all units supplying air into the premises were optimised in terms of air termination, becuase the fact that there is an indoor climate solution in place, is no assurance of everyghing working precisely. Incorrectly adjusted air flow patterns can cause both draughts and ineffective air flows, and there is an apparent risk that the ventilation is negatively percieved.
This kind of expertise is not expected from a property owner, which is why it is important to empasise that digital services are great in nearly uncountable ways, but there are situations in which a skilled and professional technician is invaluable.
Read our expert's blog on this exact topic
It is more often than not, that the facilities are not used as intended.Ragnar Jonasson, Property Manager at Viktoriaskolan
INSIDE Visualiser for the well-being of students and teachers
The use of INSIDE Analytics at Viktoriaskolan was previously mentioned, and with Analytics comes also INSIDE Visualiser. This latter service is a platform for visualising the otherwise invisible indoor climate. The measured and AI-powered indoor climate parameters from Analytics are shown on one or more screens and gives throughough information about temperature, air quality, humidity levels etc. This is not only information as such, it creates great understanding and room for reflection about why one might be too warm or too cold.
Additionally, INSIDE Visualiser is equipped with a feedback functionality. QR-codes posted on the walls throughout the school give easy access to a feedback form where students and teachers can comment on the indoor climate. That way the property manager gets real time updates from the ones in the building and potential issues can be solved more quickly. However, just knowing is sometimes enough to feel good inside.
The school's property manager has turned negative to positive
Hear Ragnar Jonasson, property manager at Skara Kommun, explain their use of INSIDE Analytics and INSIDE Visualiser. He shortly mentions that Viktoriaskolan also uses INSIDE Optimiser, our all-encompassing service where we support the local organisation with a skilled and knowledgeable Swegon technician. Learn more about this service in our expert's blog post below.
Can digital tools replace a skilled professional?
More about the success at Viktoriaskolan
