The indoor climate in historic buildings without mechanical ventilation systems

Abstract

A study of the microclimate in four rooms in historic buildings reveals the different priorities, and, therefore, the different climatic data, needed by museum conservators, compared with people studying human welfare. In particular, it is important for conservators to know if a low pollutant concentration indoors is due to a clean outdoor climate, a low air exchange rate or pollutant absorbent artwork on the interior walls of the building. Relative humidity is a quality of the indoor climate that the conservator will try to hold within narrower bounds than those considered important to human health. A study of a historic archive shows how the structure of the room, the nature of the stored materials and the custodian’s decisions combine to influence the indoor climate. An important result of this study is that the data cannot be usefully interpreted without continuous measurement of the air exchange rate in comparable detail to the measurements we routinely make of temperature, relative humidity and pollution concentration.

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