EVALUATING ENERGY SAVING SCHOOL FEATURES AND STUDENTS’ COMFORT IN CENTRAL PRISTINA STATE SCHOOLS

Abstract

Energy management and efficiency along with environmental issues specifically in buildings is a growing concern. Schools as one of the most-spread public buildings can greatly contribute to energy saving and education. However, schools should prove their contributions by practice at first. This practice can be viewed from students’ and staff’ energy behavior to building design, from number of students to energy types used in school buildings since there are several factors affecting a school’s energy performance and efficiency. This thesis deals with school type, students’ shift, building age, the number of buildings, floors and students, total school size, students’ density, floor height, extra building and energy types used in the schools to find out energy saving school features for the state primary and secondary schools in Pristina Central Municipality. The research results show that state schools investigated consume considerably less energy and produce a smaller amount of carbon dioxide than the schools in the European Union. However, stunningly lower levels of energy consumptions and carbon dioxide emissions cannot be considered as a success since providing students comfortable environment presents another aspect of school energy practice success. Thus, as the second stage of the research, this thesis also compares the highest and the lowest energy consuming state primary and secondary schools in Pristina Central Municipality from the point of students’ comfort levels with the help of Örebro Survey. The comparisons are carried out to find out complaint level differences based on students’ location in their classrooms and the number of attended lessons. between the two groups of the schools. The comparative research results indicate that school energy performances specifically in low energy consuming schools should be handled together with students’ health, well-being and comfort along with environmental issues.