Humidification critical for art gallery
Vapac humidifiers are playing a critical role in the preservation and presentation of displays at the Compton Verney Art Gallery near Warwick.
The humidifiers along with the air handlers operate 24/7 all year long providing precise ambient environment for all the works of art and historical artefacts
Compton Verney is a Grade-1 listed Robert Adam mansion house set in 120 acres of parkland landscaped by ‘Capability’ Brown. Following years of neglect, the Peter Moores Foundation purchased the house and transformed it into a gallery of international standards.
The gallery occupies three floors; a shop, café and a purpose-built learning centre are also on site. Over 800 works of art are permanently on display, these include Chinese, Neapolitan and Germanic art and British Portraits in addition to a British Folk Collection. The gallery also features visiting exhibitions such as the Van Gogh & Britain: Pioneer Collectors, hosted last year.
A constant supply of humidification is vital for all the collections along with temperature control. Close control air handlers supply conditioned air to the galleries, all equipped with chilled water and heating coils plus seven Vapac electrode boiler humidifiers allowing humidification, de-humidification, heating and cooling. In addition to this three of the exhibition galleries (V, W, X) have a total of five close control units to give final trimming of temperature and RH levels to even finer limits. An average set point of 21ºC and 50% +/- 5%RH is attained.
SG Maintenance Services was initially hired as maintenance contractors to oversee the heating and air conditioning plant and closely monitor the humidification levels. The company soon realised the existing humidifiers were overworked and after assessing the galleries needs, it soon became apparent that larger units were required.
Maintaining constant environment levels (humidity and temperature) is a fundamental requirement for membership of the Museums Association (MA), the industry professional body. The need to demonstrate compliance with MA standards is crucial to attracting exhibitions and loans from other galleries.
“To maintain temperature control and humidity levels, SGMS’ implemented a solution that created a positive air pressure within the galleries and approached the humidification issues by over sizing the humidifiers and upgrading some electrode boiler models, controlled by Vapac’s own operating systems VOS-6,” comments Nigel Barratt, Director SG Maintenance Services Ltd.
This had the significant advantage of boosting RH levels, enabling closer control of the humidity condition in critical areas. Furthermore, cost savings were achieved owing to the fact that cylinders in over sized units were subsequently not operating at full capacity, & hence needed to be replaced less frequently, a benefit given the hard water area.
SGMS now has a resident engineer on site at Compton Verney who is familiar with the galleries requirements and can pre-empt any potential problems. The company also provides a 24/7 emergency call-out.
“Compton Verney is a classic example of a critical humidification application,” says Dave Mortimer, Vapac Humidity Control’s National Sales Manager. “Without the right levels of humidity supplied all year round many galleries simply couldn’t exhibit.”