Environmental monitoring and microclimatic control strategies in “La Specola” museum of Florence

• One-year monitoring of air parameters in exhibition rooms with fifteen-minute time step.
• Conservation problems related to the maintenance of a desired temperature.
• Simulation of strategies to reduce solar gains through windows and skylight.
• Guarantee a proper environment for the conservation of the artefacts.

This work presents the results of the environmental monitoring of some rooms of the “La Specola” Museum in Florence, affected by significant overheating problem in summer mainly due to the absence of efficient solar shadings. The elaboration and analysis of the microclimatic data have been carried out according to the Italian Standard UNI 10829 and the Performance Index of the most important thermo hygrometric parameters has been calculated and assessed. This analysis shows that temperature and RH conditions were not reasonably acceptable for the preservation of the kind of objects exhibited. In order to reduce this problem, solar gain control solutions (shadings and solar control glasses) has been analyzed with a dynamic thermal simulation tool for two sample rooms, as a possible solution to improve architectural integration with the historical context. In order to reduce the risk of damage, the evaluation of different strategies has been expressed in terms of the reduction of energy need for space cooling and in terms of the ability to control dry bulb temperature values. The results can be extended to several historical buildings, where large windows and skylights imply high energy consumption and poor indoor environmental conditions that can cause damage to the artefacts.