Monitoring Temperature and Humidity in Museums

Usually, people can find artworks and artifacts that are made of natural materials like canvas, wood, parchment, and paper when visiting museums. They are carefully protected in the museums as they are sensitive to the temperature and humidity of the environment in which they are stored. Both external climatic conditions and internal factors such as visitors, lighting can cause ambient changes and result in irreversible damage to manuscript paintings and other works of art. For predictive conservation and the integrity of ancient arts, day to day accurate temperature and humidity control is essential. Museums must maintain a suitable environment with specific conditions to store the materials precisely over a long period of time. Milesight offers the IoT solution with LoRaWAN® sensors and gateway specializing in the wireless protection of high-value assets. The sensors monitor effectively the storage environment and provide real-time information to coordinate with the HAVC system in museums.

Background

Ma’anshan is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of Anhui province in Eastern China. There are many significant historic attractions including the Caishi Scenic Resort, Lin Sanzhi Art Museum, Dehuatang Chinese Ancient Bed Museum, and Ma’anshan’s newest and largest museum, Zhuranmu Museum. Overseeing the operations of the museum and all other heritage sites in Ma’anshan is the local government, which runs the attractions and also takes responsibility for the storage of their collections.

Challenges

1. Expensive costs of traditional museum solutions

The limited staff resources to collect and manage the data through traditional loggers and analog thermo-hygrograph sensors obviously increased the maintenance costs.

2. Low efficiency and inaccurate data collection

Out-of-date tools meant data collected was frequently inaccurate and data stored in an unscientific way, which caused the inefficiency of communication between the staff of the museum and officials of local governments.

Solution

The Milesight AM104 four-in-one sensors attached inside on the glass of the display cabinets and AM107 seven-in-one sensors placed on the exhibition halls/spaces to remotely monitor temperature, humidity, illumination, PIR motion, and other ambient like CO2, barometric pressure, and volatile organic compounds with 24/7 access to data via the customized application server on a web browser. The E-Ink screen displays data directly, which means great visibility by staff.

Pinpoint swings in temperature, humidity, and other criteria due to the timely alert by email and SMS from the customized monitoring center.

The test results show that the system can operate normally, the power consumption of the sensors is low, the transmission distance is about 3km across the museums. These precious artifacts can be housed in strictly controlled environments to ensure long term preservation.

Benefits

1. Precision

The advanced IoT solution based on LoRa technology can collect data precisely even it is inside of the display cabinet.

2. Energy savings

Two pieces of alkaline AA batteries are coming with sensors, which can support more than 12 months of working time. A smart screen can extend battery life by sleeping mode.

3. Flexibility

Besides the temperature and humidity control, other value-added services are available in the sensors as well. For example, the turn on/off the lights according to the illuminance, turn on/off the air conditioner according to CO2 concentration.

Featured Products

AM100 Series ambient sensor

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