Özet:

In this study, the effect of ventilation rates determined based on acceptable infection risk on the number of COVID-19 cases, probability of infection and heating energy load in various climatic regions in naturally ventilated higher education classrooms during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic were investigated. Ventilation rates, number of new cases and probability of infection were determined by the Wells-Riley model adapted to SARS-CoV-2, which was used to model the probability of airborne infection. The annual heating energy load was calculated with the EnergyPlus based building energy simulation according to the heat balance method. The proposed method was applied to university classrooms in different climatic regions as a case study. The findings showed that ventilation rates increased by 51,41% on average compared to pre-COVID-19, and the number of daily COVID-19 cases decreased by an average of 63.19% compared to the conditions of the pre-COVID-19 period to ensure an acceptable infection risk in classrooms. The increase in ventilation rates increased the annual heating energy loads of classrooms to 192.37% with 29322 kWh in a temperate climate compared to pre-COVID-19; by 98.80% with 57083 kWh in cold climate; and by 79.21% with 82467 kWh in very cold climates. In universities with naturally ventilated classrooms during the COVID-19 process, the academic year should be determined according to the periods when ventilation is suitable for indoor thermal comfort control. In this case, the energy consumption due to heating is 86.52% in a temperate climate; 69.60% in a cold climate; in very cold climates, it decreases by 61.40%. These results show that we can better prepare for airborne diseases and other possible epidemics in the future, according to climatic differences.

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