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Ministry of Education and Science
April 26, 2024

By the end of 2021, thanks to the active efforts of the Ministry of Education and Science, schools and some social care and rehabilitation institutions were equipped with remotely controlled air quality meters. The total procurement costs amounted to €3.58M excluding VAT, which also covered installation, the creation of a data collection system, providing a data publishing system (co2.mesh.lv), and device servicing for 3 years.

The procurement organized by the Ministry of Education and Science for the purchase of air quality meters, IZM 2021/29/AK, concluded at the end of 2021. By the beginning of 2022, remotely controlled air quality meters, measuring indoor CO2 air pollution, temperature, and relative humidity, were delivered and installed in all general education institutions in Latvia. The total procurement costs of €3.58M excluding VAT included implementation and the creation of a data collection system, providing a data publishing system (co2.mesh.lv), and device servicing for 3 years. The costs are evaluated in two aspects: as €12 per student (assessing the benefit for children); under €1 per m2 of space (assessing the energy efficiency benefit for the building).

The installed sensors provide real-time and historical data display on the co2.mesh.lv system. Municipal energy managers and building heating technicians, by monitoring indoor temperatures and CO2 levels of buildings, can adjust system settings, improving building regulation and achieving better energy efficiency indicators for buildings. Specialists surveyed acknowledge that the benefit in building energy efficiency is 3-5%: with the average energy consumption of educational institutions at 120 kWh/m2/year (assessment, no actual data since 2018), the estimated saving at a heat energy tariff of €85/MWh amounts to €0.50 per m2 of space per year. Accordingly, the project resulted in unexpected benefits that recouped the project's costs within the first two years.

Following the project, some municipalities have continued to develop the network of air quality meters, additionally installing equipment for automatic regulation of building heat nodes based on online meter data in municipal buildings. This approach has allowed for more qualitative control of indoor building temperatures, providing technical support to correctly reduce room temperatures. A specific example was recorded in a municipality where all expenses were recouped during the first heating season.