Overture for Schools: From Air Data to Air Control
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 9.0 µg/m3 annually; indoors, classrooms can sit well above that during high-occupancy periods.
The Room Sensor measures the air, and Overture runs the equipment - 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. A monitor shows you a number. Overture measures the room and runs the equipment, and 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. In the Harvard COGfx study, the best-scoring condition held carbon dioxide near 550 ppm with enhanced ventilation (Allen et al., 2016). Overture's carbon dioxide set point is adjustable from 600 to 2,000 ppm and ships at 1,000 ppm, so a school can set it low and let the ventilation follow the room. Most classrooms never get close, because no one knows the number. Overture gives the school that number in every classroom, 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 has nothing to do with a third-grade classroom. A 1,000 ppm rise in indoor-minus-outdoor CO2 has been associated with a 0.5 to 0.9% drop in annual attendance, and 45% of classrooms measured above 1,000 ppm (Shendell et al., 2004). Overture flags a room as soon as it crosses the set point you choose, and starts the 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, or the web-based interface to manage 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, relative 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.
