Climate Control vs. Climate Crisis

A new kind of discussion has been going on for a while now in certain circles.

Are you hearing it?

It’s about the conflict between climate control inside museums — versus the climate crisis outside.

Why? 

The climate crisis is caused in no small part by burning fossil fuels to make energy.

Climate control in museums requires regulating the temperature and humidity of galleries and storage to a special level, which takes … energy.

Lending institutions often only grant permission to borrow if you have climate control. Every “standard” agreement is pretty nonstandard — but they hover around some notorious numbers.

Typically, galleries must maintain 50% relative humidity +/- 5, and 70 degrees +/-  2. A little cool, neither dry nor damp, but in any case, never changing. You’ll need a complex HVAC system and building construction. And you must keep it running.

That’s pricey, largely because it requires a lot of extra … energy.

Even more so if you’re in a dry, damp, hot, or cold place.

And unless you’re in Iceland, where everyone’s on renewable geothermal, extra energy means burning extra fossil fuels.

Here’s the thing:

Climate control inside museums means we have to use more fossil fuels, but the climate crisis outside means we should be using less.

Uh … now what?

If you are having this discussion too, hit REPLY and LMK.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:
Relative humidity, or RH. A measure of water vapor in the air, expressed as a percentage between 0% and 100%. RH describes how much water vapor the air holds, relative to the maximum amount it could hold at that temperature. Warmer air can hold more water vapor than cold air.