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ISB's Air Conditioning Control Two opposite sides of opinions on air conditioning

Bangkok is a Southeast Asia country where the average temperature is over 30°C during the daytime. Indoor temperatures and humidity can increase steeply without air conditioning, and so it is important for schools to use air conditioning to protect students from getting heat stroke.

ISB has air conditioning in every classroom throughout the school year so students can comfortably take classes. Air conditioning is part of the facility tuition that families pay for at ISB; the school spent approximately 27 million baht to purify air and control air pressure. ISB’s air conditioning also helps with air circulation and is closely linked to the hospital-level air purification and positive pressure system that is installed in every classroom. The air in the classroom is purified through the systems and then used to produce cool air through the air conditioning system. Positive air pressure systems ensure that the pressure inside the classroom is always greater than the pressure outside of the classrooms; therefore, even when students open the door to leave the classroom, pollutants from outside will not enter the class. This is necessary especially during December and January when the air pollution in Thailand is high. However, the question arises where the energy from the air conditioner is sourced from.

Wendy Herbert, High School Environment System and Society teacher mentioned as “It’s hard to say overuse, because we need to use it. Because it’s Thailand, it’s hot, students and teachers are uncomfortable due to the weather and it is difficult to concentrate.” Nicha Sapsarasin, a 12th-grade student who takes Environmental System and Society, comments, “I agree with the opinion that air conditioners are necessary in ISB, however, I think it is overused to use 2 or more air conditioners in one class. It is enough to use only one.”

However, Mark Hevland, Director of Risk Management • Superintendent Office said “It is not true, and air conditioning doesn’t relate at all with air circulation.” In their opinion, cool temperatures for teachers and students' comfort and welfare got support from science experts. Yet, air circulation doesn’t make sense because air conditioners don't help air circulation at all.

Others, however, believe air conditioners at ISB are set at a very cold temperature which overuses energy and might actually make some students uncomfortable. So it is better to adjust the air conditioning. They are mostly from an ecocentric point of view, and their superior consideration is environmental destruction and contributes to global warming due to overuse of energy in ISB. Air conditioning is critical to the environment mainly due to consuming fossil fuels. “Air conditioning consumes fossil fuels and the majority of our energy still comes from fossil fuels. We know that when we burn fossil fuels it releases particulate matter in the atmosphere and different types of gas emissions. (Herbert)”

To sum up, Wendy Herbert says, “The way to mitigate negative environmental impact as best as we can is to reduce the use of electricity. Or find alternate uses of electricity that have less environmental impacts.” Then, she thought about the air conditioning problem of some classes, which don’t have a temperature control. “For my class, students and I can either turn on or turn off the air conditioner, and there's no way to regulate temperature. They don’t seem to have temperature regulations in some classes. We don’t have control,” she says. As their suggestion, ISB should find a way to mitigate the use of air conditioners if it is an unnecessary use.

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