Hi Robyn,
From one of our experts with experience in practical climate control for collections in historic buildings:
"The ASHRAE chapter on Museums Galleries and Archives is certainly the best source of design information for the museum's engineers. The most recent revision has been written with all the national and international guidelines in mind. In fact, the team of specialist responsible for the ASHRAE revision are the same museum environment experts advising such international museum organizations.
This ASHRAE chapter contains the wider Class A relative humidity guidelines of 40% - 60% RH with gradual seasonal changes for the majority of collections. Such wider guidelines open the door for more sustainable and less expensive environmental control equipment such as heat pumps and desiccating dehumidifiers as opposed to energy intensive supercooling and reheating equipment to control high RH. Of course, much depends on the collections being protected and the building envelope. At the very least, proven and more common museum quality environmental equipment may be used, but simply set to control to the wider standards, saving operating costs if nor initial equipment costs.
The best advice on such retrofits would come from facility managers of museums that have recently upgraded their systems for sustainability. Using the CCC network to compile such a list would be a real service to the field. I also recommend contacting the Image Permanence Institute as they have a history of providing good advice on major system upgrades and may even have a list of institutions and expert consultants on such upgrades.
If Robyn would like to contact me offline, I would be glad to point her to the engineers and facilities managers I know who specialize in museum environmental retrofits."
I'm sending you a message shortly with the expert's email if you'd like to contact them directly.
There are a few resources from the cultural heritage community that may also be of interest or value, I've linked them below:
ICOM-CC Environmental Guidelines - a more general list of the environmental guidelines set by ICOM-CC
The British Standard Institution - This is behind a paywall and may already be included in the ASHRAE guidelines
Getty Conservation Institute - Managing Collection Environments- The Getty Conservation Institute's Managing Collection Environments resource center. A collection of links (and some free books/pdfs) with updated information on guidelines for museum environments.
I hope that helps!
All the best,
Liz
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Elizabeth Peirce
Connecting to Collections Care Monitor
Conservator (Objects)
Library of Congress
Washington DC
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-13-2023 16:18
From: Robyn Adams
Subject: HVAC standards for system updates/design
Good afternoon,
I work at a state museum in a historic building, and we are looking at doing a major renovation or redesign of our HVAC system which is 40+ years old. Yay! The state engineer is starting to gather data and asked for any written standards or guidelines pertaining to cultural collections. I know of the ASHRAE chapter on Museums, but are there any additional standards out there that I should be pointing them to?
Thank you!
Robyn Adams
Registrar, South Carolina State Museum
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Robyn Adams
Registrar
South Carolina State Museum
Columbia SC
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