Category: AIC’s Annual Meeting

Provides the membership with updated news about the annual meeting. Also announces themes, deadlines for papers, need for volunteers, etc.

Take a Look at ECPN at AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting in 2012

When was the last time you looked at ECPN?  The Emerging Conservation Professionals Network (ECPN) committee has continued its growth and has exciting initiatives underway. The group is looking forward to a productive and enjoyable week at the  AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting in Albuquerque (May 8-13, 2012), with a slate of social and professional networking events.

Come to the ECPN Informational Meeting (Tuesday, May 8, 5 pm) to hear more about ongoing and proposed initiatives:

–       Enhancements to the Mentoring Program

–       Creation of a new Regional Liaison Program

–       Proposal for a Student Research Repository

–       Proposal for ECPN-wide “Forum Calls” on timely topics

The Informational Meeting will be immediately followed by a Happy Hour (6 pm – 10 pm).  Both events are free and open to anyone.

Last year’s Portfolio Review Session was a hit with attendees and presenters alike.  At this session, which will take place during the breaks at 10 am and 4 pm on Thursday, May 10, students and alumni from the various conservation training programs will show their pre-program, graduate-level, and recent graduate portfolios, and discuss their portfolios with attendees. A variety of specializations will be represented. All are encouraged to attend to see examples of emerging conservator work first-hand.

Be sure to stop by the ECPN poster, or visit with someone from ECPN at the Poster Session on Thursday at 4 pm.  ECPN is developing a poster on this year’s outreach and advocacy theme.  It’s called Creative Endeavors and Expressive Ideas: Emerging Conservators Engaging through Outreach and Public Scholarship. The poster will highlight several case studies of emerging conservators using outreach to connect with public audiences, allied professionals, and other conservators.

ECPN hopes to see you at some, or all, of this year’s events.

Call for Sustainable Tips at AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting

AIC’s Committee for Sustainable Conservation Practices is putting out a call for tips to present at our lunch session Wednesday, May 9 at 4AIC’s 40th Annual Meeting. The 2-hour lunch session, Linking the Environment and Heritage Conservation: Presentations, Tips, and Discussions, will include 2 presentations from environmentalists, followed by a 1-hour tips session and a 20-minute panel discussion.

Conservators will have 10-minutes each to present tips on how they are incorporating more sustainable practices. Topics could include: treatment materials no longer in use due to their environmental impact and their replacements; reduction and reuse of materials; new approaches to loans; and cost savings realized from sustainable practices.  Other topics are also welcome for this tips session and it is hoped the session will have a diverse range of tips and practical advice.

To present a 10-minute tip, please submit a proposal to CSCP by December 20, 2011 to sustainability[at]conservation-us.org

Saving Energy in HVAC for Conservation Environments

Pre-conference workshop led by William P. Lull

31 May 2011

Notes by participant Priscilla Anderson 

In a solid day of information-packed lectures, Bill Lull explained the basic elements of the systems that control air temperature, humidity, and quality in typical collections storage buildings, and then talked about many ways that we can decrease energy use by those systems.   He framed the day by asking the following questions:  What is the system?  How does it work?  What can we do to make it work more efficiently?

Key takeaways

Systems are usually overbuilt so they have the capacity to accommodate the peak demand (the hottest, coldest, driest, and most humid days of the year).  However, they use a lot of energy at the peak.  But they are much more efficient when running at partial power.  So if you have variable speed fans, you can turn them down on days that don’t have extreme heat or cold coming in from the outside.   They will use less energy than a smaller sized fan running at top speed.  Bill gave the analogy of a Prius going at top speed versus a BMW just keeping up with the Prius…the BMW has much better gas mileage at the Prius’ top speed!  Optimize your overbuilt systems, tweaking them to accommodate different weather patterns

Bill made a plug for the work that IPI has done (providing PEMs and software that’s easy to use so we have data to use when talking with Operations), and for promoting the idea that we can improve energy efficiency by using existing equipment, maybe doing some component upgrades, tweaking setpoints, make the existing  system work better.

Optimizing existing systems to improve energy efficiency

Cooling systems:  Some cars have a gauge in the car that tell you the real-time miles per gallon so you can see the impact of how you drive.  Most HVAC systems don’t have energy meters installed on individual equipment, so it’s hard to know how to optimize the system.  Siemens will install one of these meters for approx. $16,000 for two chillers.  Having feedback about the energy use at the device helps you make intelligent choices about how you operate that device. 

Other things you can do with your chiller:

If you don’t have a dehumidifier, but you have high humidity, then use your chiller to cool the air to the dew point in order to condense liquid water out of the air.  52 degrees F is cool enough to get air that will then be 50% RH at 70 degrees F.  So you can use your chiller as a dehumidifier.  Then you have to heat the air back up to the desired temperature again, so that takes some energy.  But since cooling systems have heat as a byproduct, you could conceivably recover that “low-grade heat” and reuse it.

Fans: Install variable frequency drives on fans so you can operate them at reduced capacity.  Fans operated at 50% speed only use 15% of the energy.  There is a double bonus for slowing down your fans that is predicted by a mathematical equation I won’t reproduce here.  Basically, when you have less air flow, that gets multiplied by a pressure number that is non-linearly lower…you get the pressure drops further along in the system (filters, etc) that then results in much less energy use.

Pumps:  If you reduce the gallons per minute, you can get a similar double effect for energy savings as the fan system.

Air quality: we don’t need as much fresh air (oxygen) as we think.  In fact, we can re-breathe our own air as long as we get rid of the carbon dioxide that we offgas.  Dilution with outside air is the least efficient  method of getting rid of CO2.  So if you can filter out CO2, then you can have a lot more re-use of air rather than bringing in outside air that then needs to be conditioned.   

Lighting is a significant source of heat in a building, so in the summer you have extra load that you have to cool building because of lighting.  You’re using energy to turn the light on, and then more energy to cool off the air that was heated up by the light.  So turn off the lights in the cooling season!

Things not to do:

Night-time shut downs you are shutting it down at the time when it would be operating more efficiently anyway (not as much cooling needed at night), and then you need to do more to catch up during the peak load time (hot day). 

Cyclic control: on/off/on/off uses 50% of the energy.  Variable frequency drive only uses 35% of the energy to meet the same load.

Filters: Do not get rid of filters!  But you can use extended surface area filters.  Slow down the fan instead to save energy. 

New construction/building design considerations:

You don’t want operable windows in an all-air system…too much imbalance on the system, and the air that comes in doesn’t get mixed well in the spaces.  Opaque, insulated walls have the smallest loads (i.e. they leak less than fixed windows, and much less than openable windows and doors).  Daylighting (windows, skylights) does not save energy…what you save in lighting, you pay more for in load (cooling in the summer). 

Don’t use pressure sensors/pressurized systems…there are better ways to manage outside air.  In practice, they just don’t work. 

It’s important to advocate for separate air handler for storage and office spaces, since the air quality/filtration (as well as temperature/humidity) needs are so different.

Dehumidification: Pre-treat outside air with its own cooling coil to get some moisture out, so you don’ t need a reheat.

Utilities

Vocabulary check: “geothermal” means dig a hole and steam comes out (volcanic activity nearby…Iceland, Hawaii).  For the kind of digging we do in North America, it’s called Ground Source Heat Pump, where you send air/water down a deep hole to condition it to a constant temperature (approx. 50 degrees F).

Photovoltaic (solar power) is very cost-effective.  Many telephone poles have a photovoltaic array panels.  They don’t need much maintenance (unlike generators); that’s why solar power is a sustainable source of energy.  Solar panels can be for either hot water or electricity. 

Hydrogen powered cars are the future…split water into O2 and hydrogen, then release the O2 and store the hydrogen for power. 

Hydro power is also a good sustainable source, because can ramp it down and up very quickly…anything with steam doesn’t have that flexibility.  You can pump water up into a tower, and generate electricity by letting it run down whenever you want it.

Utility companies charge large institutions “Demand Costs” that are calculated by the peak amount used in a 15 or 30 minute period, then you’re billed for that for the rest of the year.   So if you can reduce that peak amount by even just a little bit, then your costs will be lower over the whole year regardless of how much energy you use at other times.

AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting- Textiles Session, June 2, “The “Observer Effect” in Conservation: Changes in Perception and the Treatment of a Man’s Silk Suit, c. 1745” by Laura Mina

This talk was in interesting treatment case study of an 18th c suit, including some detective work about what has happened to it throughout its history.   Ms. Mina also attempts to draw parallels between treatment decisions made throughout the history of the piece, or conservation decisions in general, and the “observer effect” from quantum mechanics.

The suit is from the Museum of the City of New York collection and consists of a coat and waistcoat but no breaches.  The suit was a very fashionable garment when it was created in 1745 and, as frequently happened with beautiful and expensive clothing, it was sold and resold many times.  With each new owner, alterations occurred to suit their needs, creating a confusing mix of stitches and patches.  Finally the suit was donated to the Museum of the City of New York in 1938.   Even then it appears the suit wasn’t spared alteration, but in the name of restoration.   Ms. Mina then described the treatment she undertook and part of her rational for the treatment.  This piece required patience to excavate its many layers of interpretation.

AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting- Texiles Session, June 1, “On-line Access to and Preservation of a Multi-Component Sketch Collection” by Marjorie Jonas

This talk discussed the re-housing and development of a database for a collection of design sketches by Bonnie Cashin within the FIT Archives and Special Collections (SC) at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT).  Bonnie Cashin was a 20th Century fashion designer that designed clothing and accessories with this collection of sketches representing her work for the Phillip Sills Company.   More than 4000 sketches with accompanying fabric swatches and ephemera had been pasted into a spiral bound sketchbooks originally, but various sketchbooks had been unbound with the pages loose in boxes and other books remained intact.   The collection had only minimal catalog information and this along with its various housings made its use difficult and required unnecessary handling.  For this project, the sketch books were unbound because many of the plastic bindings were failing and pages were sticking to each other.  All sketch book pages were re-housed, first into 3 ml polyethylene bags and then archival boxes.

The main point of the talk was describing a finding aid that was developed to improve access to the collection and reduce the amount of handling the sketch pages encounter.  This finding aid is an online database with 10 categories that includes catalog and biographic information, with hyperlinks to images of the pages and associated materials.  For this finding aid each sketchbook page was given a unique number based on the ISAD(G) archive numbering standard.  The database is keyword searchable through the FIT library site.   This project has improved access to this collection while reducing handling and the searchable database concept is being used for other archive collections at FIT.

AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting – Textiles Session, June 1, “Uses of the fiber Reference Image Library” by Katherine Jakes

This was a very interesting and informative talk about the development of the Fiber Reference Image Library (FRIL) and web site (https://fril.osu.edu/) at Ohio State University and some of the ways it is being used. The concept was originally conceived to be an interdisciplinary and internationally developed library of fiber images but lack of funding made a large scale project impossible. Katherine Jakes then utilized the resources of Ohio State University’s Historic Costume Collection to create a scaled down version of the original vision and hopes that it will be used as a model for other institutions to do the same.

The website has photomicrographs of longitudinal fibers in both transmitted and polarized light for natural and synthetic fibers. Also included are photomicrographs of degraded fibers. All the images are linked to information about the object from which the fibers were taken, including photos, and there are links to other objects in the Historic Costume Collection that have the same fiber. In the future Ms. Jakes hopes to add more fibers, including feathers, archaeological material, and enhance the depth of the links.

Ms. Jakes also highlighted some of the outreach that has been done using the resources of the website. The first was a program developed for Middle and High school students that uses garments in the Historic Costume Collection from famous designers as an opening to discuss fiber properties and how that relates to the designers fabric choice. Also discussed is how microscopy is done. The second outreach project that Ms. Jakes talked about was dating fabric found with human remains on an island. The location and other items found on the island has raised the hope that these remains were Amelia Earhart but the fabric was polyester which wasn’t produced until the 1950s therefore too late for it to be her.

AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting – Research and Technical Studies Session, June 1, “Data-Driven Decisions: The Use of Environmental Monitoring, Technical Analysis and Resource-Sharing at English Heritage” by Caroline Roberts

Caroline Roberts, a graduate fellow at the Winterthur/UDel Program in Art Conservation, was lucky enough to spend a summer working at English Heritage with David Thickett, a pillar in the specialty of preventive conservation. Cary shared her involvement with various projects from her internship. For an overwhelming 400+ properties, Thickett’s work emphasizes practicality, resource-sharing, and sustainability. Decisions for environmental monitoring and analysis are data-driven, and thereby, case-by-case. This sensible method identifies and address problems when and where they occur, rather than applying and managing a systematic approach to many, many sites. Cary highlighted sophisticated and simple technology used, such as radio transmitters for remote data access, as well as iButton loggers in a micro-environment. I was impressed by the fine level of the problems being addressed in EH’s projects: they suggested that the institution has a handle on general preventive conservation management.

AIC’s 39th Annual Meeting – RATS, June 1, “The Development and Application of Active Microclimate Control Devices” by Jerry Shiner, Keepsafe Microclimate Systems

Jerry Shiner’s clear and informative talk adeptly answered the questions: how does that little box work and how did it get here? In other words, everything you ever wanted to know about active microclimate systems (aka microclimate generators, MCGs), but were afraid to ask. Starting from MCGs’ humble beginnings in 1938, Jerry reviewed and illustrated (with his excellent drawings) the technological history and innovations that have lead to the elegant, compact devices available today. I could not help but think of the charming series, The Secret Life of Machines.

Used with a well-sealed case (this is key), a MCG controls all of the factors a good HVAC system can:  T, RH, and air exchanges. It can also provide readings, fail safes, and alarms. To boot, they have hip names such as the Mini One and the Maxi 60, available through the speaker’s company. This sensible talk inspired my confidence in these devices, as well as Jerry’s interest and diligence in continuously improving them. He spoke of “magical thinking and microclimate control,” something many AIC attendees may quietly have in common.

AIC RATS – Microclimates – June 1, 2011

AIC RATS – Microclimates
June 1, 2011

Museum environmental guidelines and the implementations of change
Charlie Costain – Conservation and Scientific Services,
Canadian Conservation Institute (CCI)

Follow up to “plus/minus” dilemma we’ve been having otherwise known as: “Should we loosen up the environmental restrictions on museum loans to other institutions?”

At CCI – 2,500 museums support across Canada and 500 archives. They were looking for an approach that can be adapted for a variety of organizations.

Recap of “Plus/Minus Dilemma” at AIC 2010: http://www.iiconservation.org/dialogues/
Highlights:
• Jerry Podany: IIC – heritage conservation in the broader context of the modern world;
• Max Anderson: candor and honesty of what you’re doing and flexibility between parties and technical capacity of the buildings and energy concerns;
• Nancy Bell: in the UK AVISO group ask staff at Tate to reexamine conditions for loans and exhibitions – carbon emission reductions and new funding for research IGOR;
• Karen Stothart: talked about the balance of need of exhibitions and loans and the protection of those 50% RH does shift during winter;
• Cecily Crzywacz: there is no magic bullet for conditions for all institutions;
• Stefan Michalski: he felt that consensus that 10% +/- OK for most collections;
• Terry Weisser: conservators are concerned about energy savings, but need to take care of collections also. Welcomes more research in this area for wider and looser parameters.

ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers)
This is the organization that conservators look to when determining setpoint and HVAC standards for museums. There is an ASHRAE handbook that is put out every three years that includes information about designing museums . However, the temperature and RH setpoints/ standards have not changed since 1999! This handbook is written in engineer language; design parameters; system selection for engineers. ASHRAE proposes classes of control: AA, A1, A2, B, C, and D. Cool, cold, and dry are the best conditions (duh) and each class has its collection risks and benefits. See list below:

Class of control / Relative Humidity /  Temperature
AA: 50% RH +/- 5%   75°F (high) 55°F (low) +/-4°F
A1: 50% RH +/- 10%   75°F (high) 50°F (low) +/-4°F
A2: 60% RH in summer and 40% RH in winter +/- 5%   75°F (high) 50°F (low) +/-4°F
B: 60% RH in summer and 40% RH in winter +/- 10%   75 +/- 5 and cold +/-5
C: 50% RH +/- 25%   Below 85°F
D: Below 75% RH   Below 85°F

ASHRAE also has building types; higher Roman numerals have more climate control
Climate control: (VI) collection vaults, (V) museums
Partial control: (IV) and (III)
Uncontrolled: (II) and (I)

Why ASHRAE?
• Consistent with risk approach to making decisions on collections
• Flexibility for difference types of collections and locations and building types
• Facilities communication between engineers and collections folks

Example: Risk assessment on historic house in Ontario
First questions during the assessment: collections and relative value of collections; created collections “pie” chart; building vs. collection; and collections overall by percentages.

They decided the building was the most important asset, but spalling was occurring because they were trying to maintain 45% RH inside; reduce RH will reduce strain on building envelope.

There is some confusion about RH and temperature. There is a perception that RH is an issue of paramount importance which can lead to inappropriate RH as in the above example.
• Lack of awareness of options
• Lack of transparency in operations, loans and grant requirements
• As a result, discussions have begun on the federal level in Canada

“Saving Money, Preserving Collections” dialogue
• Overview of evolution of guidelines for museum environment
• Operation of facilities – facilities managers
• Current operations – shared opportunity for savings
• Conditions for loans/ funding
What temperature and relative humidity can we have to satisfy loan and grants?
Operating Conditions in National Museums
o Differs depending on type of building and collections
o Purpose building facilities run at 50% RH +/-5% in the summer and 43% RH +/- 5% in the winter, with a temperature at 21°C

Agreement on the following from museums across Canada:
• When sending materials to another Canadian museum, the loaning museums will not demand better conditions than their own
• Museums will lend objects containing hygroscopic materials to institutions that can achieve Class A conditions
• Federal grant class A will be requirement where applicable
• This is not a strait jacket – meant to be a starting point – obligation as to why this object is not suitable – more candor and information exchange
• Having the discussion and getting agreement from some of these major players is a starting point
o Moving from a rules based approach to a risk based approach – there is work to be done in terms of communication and research

Any suggestions? CCI would appreciate your input – drop him a line! Charlie.costain@pch.gc.ca 613-998-3721

The Off-Grid Museum
National Museum in Denmark
Dr. Poul Larsen and Tim Padfield

Energy savings – Denmark has been doing it WAY before it was cool and hip. Tim has worked with saving energy in conservation for many years. The presentation was given by Dr. Larsen from the National Museum in Denmark.

He showed us buildings that are relevant to the subject: energy savings

As you know, buildings depend on external energy sources to function – light, temp, RH, etc. Museums are big time energy consumers and Denmark is trying to create a building that doesn’t rely on external energy sources and uses only renewable energy sources, taking into account climatic exceptions.

One example that he gave was this Nydam Iron Age warship that was exhibited in a temporary shelter designed as a balloon. As you can imagine, energy use quite large because sealing a balloon is no small feat. Needless to say, the “balloon” leaked, causing an unstable climate – maybe C or D class in ASHRAE terms. Air conditioning depends heavily on the building envelope and the envelope was failing in this example. TO add some more fun to the mix, there was a 6 hour power outage and the balloon collapsed – only held up by wires. Constant energy supply may become a luxury and not a constant.

He showed us another warship that was transformed into an exhibition building – a submarine-turned-museum. The interior of the submarine had a kitchen, bath, and “artwork” aka pinup girlie pictures. Hilarious!! This space has a very unstable climate – doesn’t even class in ASHRAE system.

Example: A museum building with thick concrete walls located in the open landscape from the 1930s. Truly off grid – not even a telephone line and all one level. Museum has only natural lighting – insulation – high ceiling for human health requirement. Natural ventilation sufficient for air quality, no temperature and RH control. In winter we need heat for humans – ground heat pump is the most energy efficient way to heat.

Example: Gallery for minerals display that has a ground heat pump for winter heating and underfloor heating. It uses 4-5 kilowatt hour for heat. Wind energy index can be used as an energy source – a lot of wind in winter and coexists well with heat pump that could be powered by wind energy if necessary. The gallery has a heavy structure to give thermal stability and thermal insulation to reduce heat loss. Small windows reduce solar heating but allow for natural lighting. No humidity control but passive humidification from the walls but not intended – buttresses are taking in the rain water. Efflorescence is occurring on the walls, but it is not as dry in winter so it actually helps.

Example: 17th century house in Liselund Park. This house is only open to public in the summer and not heated with interior impermeable surfaces and finishes. Dehumidified air is injected to each room through small ducts in the floor to keep RH down. It works quite well according to environmental data. However, the temperature is not steady. Dehumidifier keeps the RH to about 60% – but the dehumidifier is totally keeping it in check – if it fails you’re in trouble. Humidity-sensitive objects should be in microclimates because mechanical systems cannot be relied upon. Energy consumption for dehumidification is constant over the year – could use water turbine to power the dehumidification in summer, which would be a good off-grid solution. Mechanicals are unpredictable, but water freezes so what about winter?

Example: Runic stones in Jelling from 950-970 BC outside – no energy use at all (ha ha ha). Polychrome paintings that were on the stones are lost however – copies are displayed in museum nearby – photovoltaic panels integrated into skylights to give natural and artificial light – solar energy better in summer than winter, but condition stability problem during the seasons. Combine solar and wind energy then it will meet required energy needs for museum.

Read more at www.conservationphysics.org

Some of the questions/ comments:
Isn’t there a substantial cost to building thick walls? They anticipate that the buildings will last many years so that the cost of building will be gained back due to that.

One should note the practical limitations in USA with this type of off-grid environmental controls. Denmark is in Zone 5 maritime – mild climate; the USA varies from Zone 1 Humid to Zone 7 Dry maritime and humid – Zone 5 is very small geographically. One should design a museum to the specific location and its limitations in terms of environment.

New Technologies for Energy Storage Applied to Cultural
Heritage Buildings: The Microclimatic Monitoring of Santa Croce
Museum in Florence
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,
Istituto di Scienze dell’Atmosfera e del Clima CNR-ISAC
Francesca Becherini

I will admit that I had a difficult time following this talk, so I apologize in advance for the lack of information here. The main idea of this talk was to demonstrate a method of conserving heat (as energy) in Santa Croce, Florence by using a special kind of material in drywall. Storing and then release energy is the concept. I’m thankful I understood that!

Well… here goes nothing…

The folks at the Consiglio Nazionale want to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate an affordable multisource energy thermal and electronic storage system integrated in building based on new materials, technologies, and control system: http://www.messib.eu/

So they installed this system in two civil buildings: S Croce Museum was one of them. S Croce has heating system radiators, but no air conditioning. Illumination is halogen and metal halide lamps.

As I understood it, the materials that will hold the energy or heat are phase change materials (PCM) which has the capacity to stores much more heat per unit volume. It also has a desirable melting temperature in the desired temperature operation range, a high specific heat, small volume change with high thermal conductivity. This material (which I never actually got the name of – maybe they never said it because it’s proprietary?) is available as a paraffin or hydrated salts and used in heating panels and solar (as in sun) systems. There is not much information on the long-term durability of this material nor is it inexpensive. PCM embedded in gypsum plasterboards PCM distributed in 20 with respect to gypsum.

So measurements of this material were made with automatic and manual air, temperature, relative humidity, and surface temperature contact on the surface of the art (I think) as it hung on the wall where the PCM material was infused in the gypsum wall. They chose rooms based on how much art was displayed in the room. Main results are below (as best as I caught them):

Installed panels with monitors for air temperature, RH, temperature of panel, and contact panel of wood board to simulate canvas painting. They also monitored VOCs in museum and lab. Found aromatic chlorinated alcohol terpene compounds, aldehydes, and organic acids. PCM emits low VOCs, but it is strongly reduced when in gypsum panel. Can’t tell about aldehydes and organic acids – formic acid is from gypsum panel perhaps? Not PCM? There were lots of graphs about the PCM effects in the lab. Honestly the explanations aren’t totally clear – something about the melting point of PCM? Maybe?

Anyway, according to all of the testing and graphing, they need more information on the material’s thermal behavior, VOCs emissions, and interactions of VOCs and artifacts.