The following article by Nigel Manning, Managing Director at Heronhill, was published in the October 2017 issue of Air Conditioning and Heating Magazine.

Humidification has an important role to play in our daily lives It is vital to our comfort in modern, centrally heated buildings, where a dry atmosphere compromises our wellbeing. The same can be said for fresh food, awaiting despatch, in cold stores. It is crucial to maintain the correct level of humidity to ensure fruit, vegetables and meat keep their quality and an appetising appearance.

A minimum of 50% relative humidity is essential to guarantee a room climate that is both healthy and comfortable. In order to create the optimum conditions for high-tech processes and for people’s health, a sterile, odourless and mineral free steam must be produced.

These are a few of applications for humidification, specified and supplied by Heronhill:

Archive Rooms
Art Galleries/Museums
Cold rooms
Computer Rooms
Hospitals (operating theatres)
Humidors
Offices/Warehouses
Wine Cellars

Nordmann Engineering

This high-quality Swiss product has a solution for most applications. Innovation has always been a driving force at Nordmann, with their use of modern technologies and materials. Their revolutionary and worldwide-patented ‘self-cleaning’ system minimises the amount of lime residues in steam cylinders and prolongs their use. From basic on/off to proportional control there is a wide range of options and accessories available. Large stocks of Nordmann humidifiers, accessories and spare parts are held in Heronhill’s distribution centre ready for immediate despatch.

Vapac

To compliment the Nordmann range, Vapac’s VapaVoid humidifier is an unobtrusive, low noise unit. It is the first packaged system with a horizontal low profile design to fit within a standard ceiling void and is suitable to be ducted to supply and return air grilles.

Nordmann and Vapac spare parts

Heronhill will help you identify exactly which part you need and ensure you receive it without delay. We carry an extensive range of humidifier spares ex-stock and can offer them on next day delivery.

Salter's Hall, courtesy DMFK/Jack Hobhouse

The following is an article written by Heronhill's Managing Director, Nigel Manning, published in the November 2017 edition of ACR News.

Maintaining a conditioned environment is critical to preserve the Nation's treasures in the Country’s museums and galleries. Whilst 40-60% RH is normally the optimum humidity for furniture and paintings in property such as National Trust stately homes, other artefacts stored in archives need more extreme conditions. This can be as low as 20-30% RH (film, for example) although some items benefit from being stored at 50-60% RH.

Books and documents can be severely damaged by not being kept at the correct temperature and relative humidity. The breakdown of cellulose in paper and other decay reactions constitute chemical damage. The rate of these reactions is affected by temperature and humidity levels and the speed of decay can be accelerated by warm and damp conditions. The problems experienced by not maintaining a stable environment can include mould, deterioration and warping.

Temperature levels

Whilst 16 to 20°C is normally the recommended temperature for items stored in museums, moderately fluctuating temperatures between 10 and 20°C is unlikely to adversely affect museum items. Rooms below 16°C become too uncomfortable for visitors, while anything below 10°C can cause condensation and affect relative humidity. However, temperatures above 20°C will be too hot for visitors and can accelerate degradation in museum objects. Storage areas in museums can be cooler than 16°C as they are not frequented by visitors but the items will need to acclimatise gradually between storage and display.

Applications

At Heronhill, we are proud to have been involved with many prestigious projects. Working closely with both consultants and contractors, we identify the specific conditions required by the museum or gallery and select the most appropriate system to meet the client’s needs.

Fort Cumberland

Fort Cumberland is a pentagonal artillery fortification erected to guard the entrance to Langstone Harbour, east of Portsmouth dockyard. It is widely recognised as the finest example of a bastion trace fort in England and houses the Royal Navy archives.

It is now used by Historic England for their archaeological archives where they needed to maintain 10 degrees C and 40% RH in one area and 15 degrees C and 50% RH in another. For the lower humidity application, we couldn't rely on just the refrigeration system to control the rooms so we used wall mounted Munters desiccant dehumidifiers in conjunction with twin Cellarking systems matched to Marstair condensing units and operated by individual control panels.

Salter’s Hall

When the Worshipful Company of Salters appointed M &E consultants Hoare Lea to draw up the mechanical and electrical specification for their £12 million refurbishment and extension of Salters Hall, Heronhill were specified to supply the equipment for both the wine store and archive room.

In order to meet the strict standards of BS 5454, the archive room needed to be maintained at 15 degrees C and 55% RH and a Marstair CD3 close control system, manufactured by TEV met the specification. Incorporated in 1394, many priceless artefacts owned by the livery company needed to be conserved. The equipment was installed by Iceberg Building Services

Henry Moore Foundation

Consultants Harley Haddow appointed M&E contractor Munro Building Services for this prestigious contract, which included an extensive suite of archives rooms operating at different conditions to suit the precious items and works of art. From newspaper cuttings and film to Henry Moore’s original drawings and negatives, it was critical that the correct temperature and humidity was maintained so a combination of chilled water and DX CD3 close control systems were specified, to be supplied by Heronhill. In the Negative cold store archive room, working on behalf of Munro, Adcocks installed a DX CD3 system which needed to maintain 7 degrees C. Henry Moore Foundation

Friary Court Studios

Within the confines of St James’s Palace, these studios employ a dedicated team of conservators who painstakingly preserve priceless works of art on behalf of the Royal Household. M & E consultants Environmental Engineering specified 2 x chilled water CD3 systems to ensure the working environment was maintained to protect the paintings whilst they are being restored. M&E contractor EV Bullen chose Heronhill to supply both systems and commission them to ensure they met with the Royal Household’s specification.

With such a diverse portfolio of products, Heronhill have been able to come up with a solution for the most difficult applications. As distributors for Nordmann humidifiers, we have been able to control humidity in many applications from museums and galleries to private art collections. In one such application, we provided 10 Nordmann humidifiers that were retrospectively fitted, in conjunction with a VRF system in a private house in Surrey. The client had a large collection of fine art, worth many millions of pounds, which was at risk of damage because of the high temperature being maintained by the VRF system. Fortunately, each Nordmann humidifier was able to fit alongside the chassis of each fan coil, discretely hidden behind hardwood panels and were able to increase the humidity to the desired condition to preserve the valuable artwork.

To compliment the Marstair, Quartz and Nordmann ranges, Heronhill also distributes Panasonic, Toshiba and Vapac so a system is available for most applications.

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Humidification from Heronhill