Integrated Design of Museum's Indoor Climate in Medieval Episcopal Castle of Haapsalu

Abstract

The ruins of medieval Episcopal Castle of Haapsalu in Estonia are planned to be taken into use as a museum. Due to conservational, architectural or economic reasons, it is difficult or sometimes also impossible to install climate systems into historic buildings. Before the design process, indoor climate measurements have been carried out to get an overview of the current situation, the needs for changes, to get data for model calibration and to work out the design strategy. Combined heat, air, and moisture simulations were performed with IDA-ICE software together with different indoor climate control strategies and different outdoor climatic conditions (typical year, warm summer, cold winter, humid autumn). The interaction of indoor air and moisture performance of building envelope was taken into account. Simulation model was calibrated based on field measurements and the results of simulations showed reasonable agreement with field measurements. By simulations, different climate control systems were analyzed and their necessity and the extent of performance were determined. The main target is to find out capability of passive measures for climate conditions to avoid active drying and humidifying. Resultsshowed that: with only passive indoor climate measured the indoor climate is strongly dependent of the outdoor climate as well as the massive limestone walls with large thermal and moisture capacity. Without indoor climate systems there is extensive indoor temperature and relative humidity fluctuation throughout the year. To ensure suitable indoor climate, room heating, humidification during winter period, and dehumidification during summer and autumn periods is needed. It was difficult to provide strict required indoor climate conditions for museums through the year only with passive measures.