The public now can monitor online the inside classroom temperatures at more than a dozen Hawaii Island schools.
The state Department of Education said Thursday it launched its new “Thermal Comfort” website aimed at better tracking inside temperatures and conditions at schools, which have long been complained to get too hot.
Fourteen isle schools feature data loggers that record inside temperature and humidity every 30 minutes, according to a DOE news release. Six schools feature solar-powered weather stations that transmit outside weather data to a receiver in the school office.
The schools with classroom sensors are: Hilo High, Hilo Intermediate, Kahakai Elementary, Kaumana Elementary, Kealakehe Elementary, Kealakehe High, Kohala High, Konawaena Elementary, Volcano School of Arts and Sciences, Waiakea Elementary, Waikoloa Elementary and Middle, Waimea Elementary, Waimea Middle and West Hawaii Explorations Public Charter School.
The schools with weather stations are: Honokaa High and Intermediate, Kahakai Elementary, Kealakehe High, Konawaena Middle, Waikoloa Elementary and Middle and West Hawaii Explorations Public Charter School.
Since 2016 the DOE has gradually installed air conditioning in the hottest classrooms throughout the state using $100 million appropriated by the state Legislature. It said it’s helped cool “1,190 classrooms to date, with contracts set for more than 1,300 classrooms.”
Statewide, 37 schools feature weather stations and 62 have internal sensors. Schools were selected to feature each of Hawaii’s microclimates, to include a diversity of buildings and to select sites targeted for heat abatement projects.
The website is: hidoe-thermal-comfort.com.
