A methodology for microclimatic quality evaluation in museums: Application to a temporary exhibit

Every single artefact, either exhibited in a museum or as an integral part of a historical building, needs a controlled microclimate in order to be preserved. Since a monitoring program can support decisions and actions aimed at preventing the deterioration of vulnerable objects, the need to observe the environmental parameter status and variations over time is of primary importance in museums. In this paper a methodology to evaluate the microclimatic quality in museums is presented, in accordance with the Italian Standard UNI 10829 focused on the statistical analysis of the data. The methodology, based on a medium/long-term monitoring aims at determining a synthetic index to judge the microclimate quality related to the requirements to avoid preservation risks. The measured data are compared with the required values for artefact preservation. The thermal quality is evaluated by the ‘‘performance index’’, which expresses the percentage of time in which the required parameters do not match. The procedure is applied for the thermal qualification of a temporary exhibit.