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  • 1.  Air purifiers for historic house museum

    Posted 01-11-2024 14:55

    Hello hivemind,

    We are looking for ways to decrease dust accumulation on surfaces in our historic house museum. Does anyone have experience using floor-standing air purifiers in such a setting? Budget-friendly options are preferable. Any thoughts, suggestions, or resource referrals would be most appreciated!

    Thanks!



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    Alyssa Morein
    Collections Manager
    Nichols House Museum
    Boston MA
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  • 2.  RE: Air purifiers for historic house museum

    Posted 01-12-2024 11:31
    While I do not have experience in air purifiers for house museums, specifically, you may find this interesting:
     https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-purifier/ 

    And this from Consumer Reports: https://www.consumerreports.org/appliances/air-purifiers/buying-guide/

    I have this one at home and like it: QuietPure Home Air Purifier


    Craig Deller
    Cultural Heritage Conservator
    Fellow-AIC / IIC
    www.dellerconservation.org

       
    Conservators never "retire".....sort of like the Mob that way, once you're in, that's it!



    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Air purifiers for historic house museum

    Posted 01-13-2024 19:31

    I will add to my previous post that you may want to consider several smaller units placed throughout the house as opposed to one large floor model.



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    Craig Deller
    FAIC
    FIIC
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Air purifiers for historic house museum

    Posted 01-16-2024 10:04

    While I do not have direct experience of using an air purifier in a historic house museum setting, I have used a portable one (Honeywell HEPA filter air purifier) in my home so I am familiar with them. In theory it should be a good idea for reducing dust and other allergens in the space, however three things come to mind that you may want to carefully consider:

    1 - Will the air purifiers look out of place or distracting in the period room setting?

    2 - Will be air purifier be noisy to run (I found mine was so noisy it was difficult to hold a conversation in the room where it was running)? 

    3 - Will the blowing exhausted air disturb artifacts nearby?

    Perhaps you could work around these issues by being selective about when to run the machine. Alternatively, some models may be better suited to your purposes than others. I would be interested to hear what you decide and how well it works for you.

    Dee



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    Dee Stubbs-Lee
    Conservator
    New Brunswick Museum
    Saint John NB
    +1 506-608-0380
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Air purifiers for historic house museum

    Posted 01-12-2024 11:31

    Hello Alyssa,

    As the acting C2C Care community monitor, I'd like to thank you for posting this question to the community. Although the C2C Care program does not endorse any particular manufacturer or product, I invite members to discuss their dust busting recommendations and equipment experiences.

    I've gathered a few resources for you, including recent reviews of air purifiers. My institution recently purchased some Ikea Fornuftig air purifiers for individuals to use in collections processing workrooms to reduce airborne particulates. They are quiet, sleek, attractive, and budget friendly, but not, as the included review points out, overly effective for our larger workspaces. 

    https://www.conservation-wiki.com/wiki/Dust_and_Housekeeping

    https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/conservation-preservation-publications/technical-bulletins/pollutants-museums-archives.html#a10

    https://www.sfmoma.org/read/clean-air-art-they-just-go-together/

    https://www.tomsguide.com/best-picks/best-air-purifiers

    https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-purifier/

    https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/ikea-fornuftig-air-purifier/



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    Sharon Fickeissen
    Connecting to Collections Care Monitor
    Senior Library Conservation Technician
    Hagley Museum & Library
    Wilmington DE
    sfickeissen@hagley.org
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Air purifiers for historic house museum

    Posted 02-06-2024 11:31

    This is great, thank you Sharon!



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    Alyssa Morein
    Collections Manager
    Nichols House Museum
    Boston MA
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    Original Message


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