Indoor air quality performance in air-conditioned museum gallery

Abstract

Abstract The performances of IAQ in Malaysian museum galleries have not been well investigated. As a hot and humid country, air conditioning (AC) systems are used in enclosed galleries. Improper AC systems may affect IAQ levels as they may not only affect people but also artefacts deterioration. Selected IAQ parameters were measured in selected museum galleries in Peninsular Malaysia by using active sampling with multiple sensors at several points continuously. Results on average values for indoor temperature and carbon dioxide complied with people and artefact threshold level. However, air velocities were far below the recommended level. Visitors’ influx influenced CO2 levels but did not affect the resuspension and reposition of PM1. It started to increase when the CO2 decreased. This highlighted the contribution of this research as guideline for IAQ in museum is only up to the concentration of PM2.5. Poor Va and the existence of PM1 were expected due to the inefficiencies of the AC systems as higher cooling capacity did not influence better IAQ performance. It was concluded that, IAQ performance in the selected galleries did not perform well due to poorly ventilated cool air supply and improper layout of air inlets due to the ceiling heights and hanging decorative ceiling.