Alarko Carrier Changed the Atmosphere of Ödemiş Balabanlı Primary School

It is known that an environment with ideal air conditioning conditions has a positive effect on children's academic success by at least 15 percent. For this reason, Alarko Carrier continues its "The Atmosphere of Schools is Changing" project. Thanks to the project, the school's annual energy cost savings are expected to be around 400 thousand TL.

Alarko Carrier continues to turn its expertise in the field of air conditioning into a charity project and to create comfortable classrooms for students with the motto "The Air of Schools is Changing". The project, which started at Midyat Çaldere Primary School last year, moved to Balabanlı Primary School in İzmir's Ödemiş district this year. The primary school of Balabanlı Village, which has been heated with a coal stove until today; A carbon-neutral high-tech system consisting of a heat pump, heat recovery device, fan coil, air cleaning device, circulation pump and photovoltaic panel was installed. The school, where the heating and cooling needs of the classrooms will be met with heat pump technology, will now produce its own electricity with a renewable system. With this system, the school will not have any coal, wood, kindling or electricity costs, and cleaning costs will decrease; In this way, it is estimated that 400 thousand TL will be saved annually for the public benefit.

A press conference was held in Izmir on September 20 for the project, which was implemented to draw attention to the effects of air conditioning on children's development and education and to support education. Ödemiş Deputy Director of National Education Ahmet Turan Yüzük and Alarko Carrier General Manager Cem Akan, who attended the meeting, provided information about the details of the project and the effects of air quality on children's education. Ödemiş Mayor Mustafa Turan and Ödemiş Gendarmerie Commander Major Cihan Gültekin also attended the ceremony at the school.
Stating that they have been supporting the production of environmentally friendly, future-oriented technologies that will positively affect the future of future generations for many years, Alarko Carrier General Manager Cem Akan said the following about the project: “World Health Organization (WHO) data shows that almost the entire world population breathes air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants. In comparative risk studies conducted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, indoor air pollution is also among the top five environmental risks to public health. School-age children are at the top of the groups most sensitive to indoor air quality. Academic studies conducted in many countries show that indoor air quality in schools, where children spend a large part of their daily lives, directly affects children’s health and academic performance. In a classroom where the windows and doors are closed, carbon dioxide levels reach their highest levels during 40-minute lessons. Distraction and decreased efficiency, especially after the first 20-30 minutes, can also be caused by the decrease in clean air in the environment.
According to a study conducted in Belgium, a carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration of more than 1000 ppm in classrooms increases absenteeism by 10 to 20 percent. International studies show that academic success is 15 percent higher in schools with ideal air conditioning compared to other places. Again, according to studies, children who grow up in clean air are physically and mentally stronger. In addition, bad air can trigger allergies. This causes children to get sick more often. With our School Air is Changing project, we aim to support children's education on the one hand, and draw attention to the effects of air conditioning on children's development and education life on the other. We started our project last year in order to create social awareness on this issue. As part of our project, we installed a state-of-the-art system for heating, cooling and indoor air quality needs in our school, where a coal stove is used. We completed our work, which we started in July of this year, using devices that are completely our own brand, as of September.

Balabanlı Primary School Will Produce Its Own Electricity

Akan, who stated that they have created an environmentally friendly air conditioning system at Balabanlı Primary School, said that in addition to the heat pump, a heat recovery device, fan coil, air purifier, circulation pump and photovoltaic panels were installed at the school and said, “One of the most important components of the project that has created a radical change in the air conditioning of the school is the photovoltaic panels. Thanks to this technology that converts solar energy, the most important clean energy source of today, into electrical energy, Balabanlı Primary School has now started to produce its own electricity. With the photovoltaic panels, the electricity consumption of other electrical devices as well as the air conditioning system installed in the school will be met.”
Ahmet Turan Yüzük, Deputy Director of National Education of Ödemiş, also thanked Alarko Carrier for its contributions to education at the meeting and presented a plaque. Yüzük said, “It is very important to raise awareness of the problems experienced by this society we are in. We would like to thank Alarko Carrier for giving us hope for a sustainable future and express our gratitude. "We are here today for a wonderful social responsibility project, we hope this project will be an example for everyone," he said.

Clean Air is Everyone's Right

In the new system established by Alarko Carrier, which set out with the slogan "Clean Air is Everyone's Right", the basic heating and cooling needs of the school will be met from now on with the heat pump, which is shown as the product of the future and offers an environmentally friendly technology. The heat pump will also be able to provide domestic hot water. A much more comfortable air conditioning will be provided with the heat pump, which does not consume fossil fuels and offers an environmentally friendly solution. The fan coils placed in the classrooms will heat or cool the indoor air according to the need by passing the hot or cold water produced by the heat pump through themselves.

Thus, the classrooms where the children study will be cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The fresh air need in the classrooms will be provided by heat recovery devices. Thus, the fresh air will be adjusted and controlled according to the amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) taken from the environment.

In addition, HEPA filter air purifiers that clean the air inside by passing it through six-stage filters have been placed in each classroom. Thus, students are provided with an environment that is free of microorganisms, healthy and does not allow for contagion. Photovoltaic panels (PV) were installed to meet the electricity needs of the entire school. In this way, Balabanlı Primary School, which was previously heated with coal stoves, will not have annual coal expenses, trouble and pollution. Photovoltaic panels (PV), which are a comfortable and healthy air conditioning system, will be used without any electricity costs.