The assessment of environmental conditioning techniques and its energy performance in historic churches located in Mediterranean climate

Catherine Teeling, Carmen Muñoz-González, A. L. León-Rodríguez, M. Campano-Laborda, R. Baglioni

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Historical buildings require a specific approach regarding energy performance and indoor microclimate. However, the implementation of energy efficient solutions in historical buildings is limited, because the materials, the structure, geometry or artworks to be preserved often do not allow for sufficient enhancement of the microclimate parameters or energy performance. The main aim of this work is to study the use of environmental conditioning techniques in a historic building and its impact on the preservation of the artworks before the refurbishment of the project. This study describes experimental research carried out on the church of Nuestra Señora de la Merced, an example of a historic building in a Mediterranean climate. The building was monitored and measured to validate numerical codes using Design-Builder version 4.7.027 and Energy Plus 8.3oftware building models allowed the evaluation and the implementation of different environmental techniques; passive, active and a combination of both within the church in order to conserve and preserve artworks. This work concluded that the use of passive environmental techniques does not completely eliminate the need for mechanical solutions in order to reduce the risk or the bio-deterioration that are part of the movable heritage. Proposals for the use of active systems and their combination with passive techniques will improve the initial preservation of artworks and decrease the risk of biological degradation. Although energy consumption is high due to the large size and thermal inertia of only active systems, consumption is considerably reduced when active and passive systems are combined.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)74-82
    JournalJournal of Cultural Heritage
    Volume34
    Early online date7 Jun 2018
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Dec 2018

    Keywords

    • ermal building simulation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Modelling
    • HVAC
    • historic buildings
    • mechanical degradation.

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