Overture Indoor Air Quality Monitoring for Schools

Indoor air quality in a classroom is not a comfort issue. It drives student health, attendance, and how well kids think. Two variables matter most in a school, and Overture tracks both in real time:

• CO2, which governs cognition. As CO2 climbs in an occupied classroom, measurable cognitive performance drops - complex problem solving and executive function fall first.
• PM2.5, the fine particle load that carries roughly 80% of indoor-contaminant health harm (Max Sherman, 2024). The EPA limits outdoor PM2.5 to 35 µg/m³ over 24 hours and 12 µg/m³ annually; indoors, classrooms can sit well above that during high-occupancy periods.

Overture is the Automated IAQ System. The Room Sensor measures the air, and Overture automates a response - it can put an ERV into boost mode, turn on a make-up air fan, or run the air handler blower to circulate and filter the air. No other IAQ sensor takes action on what it measures. That is the difference between watching a problem and fixing it.

Why Air Quality Matters in Schools

Students spend a large share of their day inside school buildings, and the air in those rooms is rarely measured. When 25 students breathe in a closed classroom, CO2 can climb past 1,500 ppm within an hour. Harvard's Healthy Buildings research (Joe Allen) shows cognitive function declines as CO2 rises; we target 550 ppm indoors as the level where kids think clearly. Most classrooms never get close, because no one knows the number. Overture gives the school that number, room by room, and then acts on it.

CO2 and Cognitive Function

CO2 is the clearest signal of whether a classroom is getting enough fresh air. As it rises, decision-making, concentration, and complex problem solving fall - and the effect shows up well below the 5,000 ppm 8-hour limit OSHA sets for industrial workers, a threshold that hasnothing to do with a third-grade classroom. The right target is far lower. Aligned with Harvard Healthy Buildings, Overture flags a room the moment CO2 trends toward levels that dull cognition (we target 550 ppm), and it can automatically trigger ventilation - boost an ERV, open a make-up air fan, or run the blower - to bring it back down without a facilities manager lifting a finger.

Built for One Classroom or an Entire District

Overture scales with the building. Use the Overture app for a single school of roughly 1 to 10 monitored locations, or the web-based interface to manage roughly 50 to 500 locations across a multi-building campus in real time. The Room Sensors are powered, so there is no battery to change and no gap in coverage. Every space reports the same five values, in the same order: CO2, PM2.5, TVOC, humidity, and temperature.

Want to see what the air in your classrooms is actually doing? Contact us today and get your free IAQ Room Sensor (1 per school while supplies last). Our team will design a system that fits your buildings and your budget, then show you how to put it to work. Book a call to get started.