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PŪ MANAAKI KAHURANGI 

NEW ZEALAND CONSERVATORS OF CULTURAL MATERIALs


Environmental Sustainability Network: Passive is Sustainable

  • 26 Aug 2021
  • 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (BST)
  • Online - UK

Environmental Sustainability Network: Passive is Sustainable

It's time for Conservators to take the lead! An exploration of why passive climates work and why HVAC climate control does not.

For 40 years, storage and display of heritage has been heavily influenced by notions of 'close control' of RH and temperature, using mechanical air systems to achieve stability at our preferred levels.

The trouble is they haven't - with few exceptions (none?) 'HVAC' systems regularly or even continously fail, in some cases catastrophically. Worse, they were expensive to design, to install and to maintain, using excessive energy and having a heavy carbon footprint. The irony is that passive measures would have served us better all along, protecting collections better and sustainably.

But what is 'passive' and how does it work? Why should Conservators get involved? Simply wringing our hands at troublesome HVAC systems that we don't understand and not challenging the orthodoxies with knowledge makes us complicit in the scandalous waste of energy and carbon emmissions that we could have prevented if we had got engaged in how internal climates work. It's time Conservators took a lead.

This talk will explore why passive climates work and why HVAC climate control does not. It aims to arm conservators with key knowledge and the means to gather evidence to argue the case for change in their own workplace and in others'. It seeks to help Conservators define the measures needed to stabilise internal climates and achieve savings in energy-use and carbon emmissions.

Speaker - Chris Woods ACR, Director, National Conservation Service

ICON Members - Free

Non-Members - £10

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