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

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 absenceof efficient solar shadings. The elaboration and analysis of the microclimatic data have been carried outaccording to the Italian Standard UNI 10829 and the Performance Index of the most important thermohygrometric parameters has been calculated and assessed. This analysis shows that temperature and RHconditions were not reasonably acceptable for the preservation of the kind of objects exhibited. In orderto reduce this problem, solar gain control solutions (shadings and solar control glasses) has been ana-lyzed with a dynamic thermal simulation tool for two sample rooms, as a possible solution to improvearchitectural integration with the historical context. In order to reduce the risk of damage, the evaluationof different strategies has been expressed in terms of the reduction of energy need for space coolingand in terms of the ability to control dry bulb temperature values. The results can be extended to severalhistorical buildings, where large windows and skylights imply high energy consumption and poor indoorenvironmental conditions that can cause damage to the artefacts.