Appropriate technologies for relative humidity control for museum collections housed in historic buildings

Staniforth, Sarah; Hayes, Bob; Bullock, Linda

doi:10.1179/sic.1994.39.supplement-2.123

Cited by 21 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…As Thomson (1986, p. 268) had also recognised in the second edition of his book, historic buildings, the homes of many collections worldwide, often needed a different approach and account also needed to be taken of local climatic conditions (Kerschner, 1992;Oreszczyn et al, 1994;Staniforth et al, 1994). The National Trust (for England), for example, uses a system of conservation heating in their houses (which are mostly closed to the public during the winter) whereby RH is controlled to about 60% by heating the rooms to a temperature 5 or 6°C above that outside (to a maximum of 18°C, 22°C in summer) by the use of a humidistat set to a predetermined value: if the RH rises above this value, the heating is switched on until it falls.…”

Section: Buildings Their Environments and Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental conditions for the safeguarding of collections: A background to the current debate on the control of relative humidity and temperature

Atkinson

2014

Studies in Conservation

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Conditions of relative humidity (RH) and temperature within museums and buildings holding collections of cultural heritage objects are often maintained around a strictly controlled set point of about 50 ± 5% RH and 20 or 21 ± 2°C to provide safe, stable conditions for hygroscopic artifacts. It has recently been proposed that these ranges should be relaxed to values that are less energy-intensive to maintain while still being safe for the objects in the collection, with the aim of reducing both carbon footprint and energy use. It is also suggested that conditions should be determined by the needs of individual objects and by the local climate of the region, rather than applying overall values across the museum as a whole. This proposal has led to much discussion within the conservation community. The suggested values, a stable humidity within the range 40-60% RH and a stable temperature within the range 16-25°C for most objects, apart from the most vulnerable, are derived from the results of experimental research on the responses of individual materials to particular conditions of RH and temperature, as well as observations of the behaviour of cultural heritage objects in their own environments and on loan. This paper describes briefly the historical and scientific background to the present discussion.

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Section: Buildings Their Environments and Collectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental conditions for the safeguarding of collections: A background to the current debate on the control of relative humidity and temperature

Atkinson

2014

Studies in Conservation

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“…The milestone IIC 1994 congress showed the varied climatic needs of different materials (Erhardt and Mecklenburg 1994), demonstrated the benefits of non-mechanical control methods related to climatic region (e.g. Staniforth, Hayes, and Bullock 1994), illustrated how difficult reaching moderate, tight climatic conditions was for many countries (Johnsen 1994), introduced risk assessment to preventive conservation (Waller 1994), and challenged the logic of loans conditions (Ashley-Smith, Umney, and Ford 1994).…”

Section: Reflecting On the 1994 Congressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Environments for Collections: The Impact of International Loans on Sustainable Climate Strategies

Taylor

Boersma

2018

Studies in Conservation

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Exhibitions in general and loans in particular still appear to be driving median and relatively tight climatic parameters for collection environments. This paper explores the impact of international loans on the adaptation of more sustainable climate control strategies. By offering a description of the complexities and (un)certainties associated with international loan policies that moves beyond the climate parameters, it explores why a more pragmatic approach to environmental control strategies is impeded. It describes how the Getty Conservation Institute's Managing Collection Environments initiative is addressing this impasse and gives some suggestions for moving the debate forward.

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“…Our intention is to achieve a constant relative humidity within the room to a set point of 58 per cent and within a target band of 50 -65 per cent. 5 Consideration must also be given to frost protection at below 58C and a maximum temperature setting for both summer and winter periods at 22 and 188C, respectively. This is achieved by modulated heating water being fed into six conservation house zones on demand from six combined temperature and humidistats.…”

Section: Identifying Our Problemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring the book collection at Lanhydrock House

Holden¹

2007

Journal of the Society of Archivists

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The discovery of mould and spider beetle in the book collection held within the Long Gallery at Lanhydrock House in Cornwall prompted an investigation into, amongst other things, our environmental control systems and heating services. A resultant action plan recognised that controlling levels of relative humidity to a set point with a Victorian heating system can be problematical. In making this assessment special consideration had to be given to the size of the architectural space, any constraints on the historic building fabric, the efficiency of the heating system and the Cornish climate. These factors, when related to the results of environmental monitoring carried out over a three-year period, draw us to an inevitable conclusion that the underperformance of our heating system contributes, in part, towards a higher risk of microbiological growth and insect pest infestation within the collections.

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Appropriate technologies for relative humidity control for museum collections housed in historic buildings

Cited by 21 publications

References 1 publication

Environmental conditions for the safeguarding of collections: A background to the current debate on the control of relative humidity and temperature

Environmental conditions for the safeguarding of collections: A background to the current debate on the control of relative humidity and temperature

Managing Environments for Collections: The Impact of International Loans on Sustainable Climate Strategies

Monitoring the book collection at Lanhydrock House

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