ENERGY EFFICIENT MICROCLIMATE STABILIZATION FOR SEALED ARCHIVAL STORAGE ENCLOSURES

Abstract

Preventive conservation of documentary collections requires stable local conditions, yet whole-room conditioning can be energy intensive. This study evaluates a sealed archival enclosure combining four Peltier modules, passive humidity buffering, environmental sensing, and dew-point-protected control. A 2.83 h laboratory campaign compared hybrid, active, and passive modes while ambient temperature increased from 16 to 32 °C. Hybrid and active modes maintained the internal temperature near 18.4 °C and achieved 100% compliance with the 18 ± 2 °C target band, whereas passive operation achieved about 41% thermal compliance. Relative humidity remained within 50 ± 5% in all modes. Active and hybrid operation consumed about 0.058 kWh, compared with 0.0055 kWh in passive mode. Conservative peak comparisons indicated at least 83.0% attenuation of PM2.5 and 79.8% attenuation of total volatile organic compounds. The results demonstrate the short-term feasibility of localized, energy-aware archival microclimate control.