The influence of passive measures on the highly demanding room climate requirements of a museum building in terms of sustainability

Abstract: In the exhibition space of a museum, a compromise between the requirements for the preservation of cultural goods and thermal comfort criteria for visitors has to be applied. Such a high level of control without allowing fluctuations in temperature and relative humidity poses a big challenge to the air conditioning systems to maintain these very specific hygrothermal conditions. This study presents a simulation-based parametric study of passive measures implemented to reduce the energy demand and thereby also the environmental impact of the building. The changes were limited to the interior walls and surfaces, keeping the main type of construction of the investigated reference building intact. The effect of thermal mass by wall thickness and moisture buffering capacity of clay plaster were assessed. The simulation results showed that the biggest increase of thermal mass could lower the cooling demand by 1.8 % while the thickest layer of clay plaster reduced the dehumidification demand by nearly 2 %. These effects confirmed the general hypothesis but the improvement was rather minor. In terms of life cycle assessment, the applied changes amortized in less than two years due to the low initial environmental impact of the measures. By implementing a specific climate risk assessment method it was possible to investigate the impact of changed setpoints while still maintaining conservation requirements. This resulted in a reduction of the cooling demand by a third. In general, a critical review of the current standards and practices on museum air conditioning and individual risk assessment could lead to a considerable mitigation of environmental impacts currently caused by museums.