The assessment of environmental conditioning techniques and their energy performance in historic churches located in Mediterranean climate

Abstract

Abstract There is a particular approach to the energy performance and indoor microclimate of historic buildings. However, the implementation of energy efficiency in historic buildings is limited, given that the materials, structure, geometry and artworks to be conserved inhibit the improvement of microclimate parameters or energy performance. The main aim of this work is to study the use of environmental conditioning techniques in a historic building and its impact on the conservation of artworks prior to the refurbishment project. This study describes experimental research carried out on the church of Nuestra Senora de la Merced, a historic building in a Mediterranean climate. The building was monitored and measured to validate numerical codes using Design Builder 4.7.027 and Energy Plus 8.3. Software building models made it possible to evaluate the implementation of different environmental techniques – passive, active and combined – in the church with a view to conserving artworks. This study concluded that the use of passive environmental techniques does not completely eliminate the mechanical risk or bio-deterioration that are inherent to movable heritage. Proposals for the use of active systems in combination with passive techniques improve the initial conservation of artworks and decrease the risk of biological degradation. Although energy consumption is high due to the large size and thermal inertia of the building, consumption is considerably reduced when active and passive systems are combined.