Standardisation activity on the

protection of sensitive materials like

wood within CEN Technical
Committee 346

Roman Kozlowski
Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow
The framework

CEN Technical Committee 346 ‘Conservation

of Cultural Property’, chaired by professor
Vasco Fassina
Working Group 4 ‘Environment’
draft CEN standard prEN 15757 ‘A guide to
specifying temperature and relative humidity
in order to limit climate-induced physical
damage to organic hygroscopic materials’
The standard adopts two
approaches

1.Environment – acclimatisation approach

Maintain the same microclimate in terms

of levels, seasonal cycles and fluctuations
of temperature and RH, to which the
materials have acclimatised for a long
time, if this climate has been proved not
to be harmful
2.Material – understanding the mechanical
behaviour of painted wood

Variations of environmental parameters

should stay below a critical level above
which risk of physical damage appears
Knowledge of historic climate
required
The standard provides guide to determining
the RH target from the past indoor
conditions (Informative Annex)
– monitor for one of more years
– describe the historic RH pattern by calculating:
§ average RH level over a selected period
§ seasonal cycle
§ short-term fluctuations
Church of
Annunciation
Skepe,
Poland

valuable
paintings

1750-53
Yearly average - arithmetic mean of the
RH readings
90

80
Relative humidity [%]

70

60
yearly average

50

40
2006-12-01 2007-03-01 2007-06-01 2007-09-01 2007-12-01 2008-03-01 2008-06-01
Date
Seasonal cycle - the 30-day central moving
average of the RH readings smooths out the
fluctuations and highlights long-term cycles

30 days

80
Relative humidity [%]

60

RH readings
seasonal cycle
40

2008-01-01 2008-02-01 2008-03-01 2008-04-01 2008-05-01

Date
Short-term fluctuation - a difference between a
current RH reading and a 30-day moving average

90

80
Relative humidity [%]

70

60
Fluctuation amplitude 17%

50
RH readings
seasonal cycle
40

2008-01-01 2008-02-01 2008-03-01 2008-04-01 2008-05-01

Date
Target RH range – 14% of the largest, most
risky fluctuations are excluded
100

90
target range
80
RH [%]

70

60

50
RH reading
seasonal cycle
40

2006-12-01 2007-03-01 2007-06-01 2007-09-01 2007-12-01

Date
Absolute allowable RH variation
• If the analysis of the historic climate
determines that RH fluctuations depart by
less than 10% from the seasonal RH level,
the calculated limit is considered
unnecessarily strict and can be disregarded.

• The 10% RH threshold can be accepted

instead under responsibility of a qualified
conservation professional.
• the standard proposes a mathematical
processing of historic climate records
to define a clear quantitative target
microclimate

• criteria for defining tolerable

fluctuations should be informed by
research or condition surveys

• ± 10%rh is allowed whatever the

historic climate
Heating system installed
Localised heating

1m
Low energy consumption

• total power 12kW

• benches – 7kW, 100W/1 m of a

heating element, Tmax - 50oC,

• platforms – 5 kW, 300W/1 m2 of

a heating foil, Tmax - 30oC
Monitoring and control
Monitoring
and control
Recording and calculating
the parameters
30 day running average

80
Relative humidity [%]

fluctuation
60

30 days

40 RH reading

07-07-01 07-07-11 07-07-21 07-07-31 07-08-10 07-08-20 07-08-30

Date
Conditions governing the
operation of the heating
system - initial
• RHnave and RHchoir > RH30 day av. - RH

• RH = 11%

• Safety precautions
An episode of dry outdoor
weather

80
Relative humidity [%]

lower limit of the target range

60

RH readings
seasonal cycle
40

08-01-01 08-01-07 08-01-13 08-01-19 08-01-25 08-01-31

Date
Conditions governing the
operation of the heating
system - improved
• RHnave and RHchoir > RH30 day av.–11%

and

• RHnave and RHchoir in 1.5 hour less

than 2%
Warning! The harmlessness of the
pre-existing climatic conditions has
been a key assumption in the
approach.
Harmful aspect of the historic climate -
condensation events on the ceiling
15
14
13
T - Dew Point Temperature [ C]

12
o

11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270
Time [day]
Condensation events – when?
8
Mixing Ratio [g/kg]

New
Year
2
-8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
Time [day]
IR heating of the ceiling
Conditions governing the
operation of the ceiling heating
The control is independent for the
nave and the choir:

Tsurface> Dew Point + 0.75oC

(hysteresis 0,25 oC)
 Capacity of IR heaters

°C
4

3
0 3:20 6:40 10:00 13:20 16:40 20:00 23:20 26:40 30:00 33:20 36:40 40:00 43:20 46:40 50:00

Heating rate of the ceiling: 10C / hour

The system has prevented the
episodes of condensation
4

3
T - T dew point [ C]
o

07-12-20 07-12-23 07-12-26 07-12-29

Date
Conclusions
q programmable criteria to control the
active systems (like heating) in
historic buildings and museums can
be derived from historic climate
q a standard can be a useful guide to
procedures in such process
q if the historic climate is harmful, for
whatever reason, studies and
measures must be undertaken