Client: OD Group
Project Location: Marble Arch, London
Completion Date: September 2024
Sector: Art Gallery
Project Overview – Moco Museum
AG47 Energy Services Ltd was tasked with delivering a Building Management System (BMS) for the excitingly eccentric Moco Museum. Located on the north-west corner of Hyde Park, London.
Project Brief
Our primary brief was to design and install a sophisticated Building Management System (BMS) to maintain the air-conditioned spaces within the building, ensuring they adhered to the documented indoor heating design conditions, particularly at peak heating loads. This required the system to control and balance multiple environmental factors effectively:
- Outdoor Heating Loads: The BMS needed to account for external temperature fluctuations, ensuring that heating loads imposed by outdoor conditions were efficiently managed.
- Internal Loads: The system must account for internal contributions from lighting, equipment, and occupants.
- Solar Heating Contribution: The system also needed to compensate for the absence of solar heating.
- Loads Due to System and Other Losses: The BMS had to account for any losses due to the building’s systems or other environmental factors, ensuring consistent performance in maintaining the indoor climate.
Challenges
The key challenge was to regulate and maintain consistent temperature and humidity in large exhibition spaces, while also providing a comfortable environment for office occupants, without being impacted by external weather fluctuations, lighting, and people’s presence in the museum.
Each floor of the museum had its unique requirements, from the temperature-sensitive ground and first floors, where wood and canvas artworks are displayed, to the basement, which houses audio-visual installations.
Key challenges included:
Temperature Control: A significant challenge is maintaining precise temperature control in the exhibition areas on the ground and first floors. The BMS is required to limit the average temperature change to 1°C per hour per floor, with fluctuations minimised to protect the artwork including sensitive materials like wood, canvas, and paper. These conditions are measured using BMS wall-mounted temperature sensors in the exhibition zones and must be stabilised after the plant had been operating for one hour.
Humidity Regulation: Another key challenge was to maintain strict humidity control across the exhibition spaces. The BMS needs to limit relative humidity differences in the air-conditioned space to 2.5% within one hour and 5.0% over a day, measured by BMS wall-mounted sensors, positioned over 1000 mm from other appliances to avoid interference. The system must ensure these conditions are met after the plant has been operational for one hour and when outdoor conditions are not exceeded, with relative humidity measurements taken in the same five-minute period.
Basement AV Rooms: For the basement’s audio-visual exhibition areas, the BMS needs to maintain tight temperature control, limiting average temperature changes to 1°C per hour. This is crucial for ensuring the stability of equipment and exhibits. Like the exhibition spaces, temperature fluctuations had to be kept to a minimum, with measurements taken from BMS wall-mounted sensors after the system had been operating for at least one hour.
Our Approach
We fitted a Distech BMS System designed to seamlessly control the building’s climate, achieving the following outcomes:
Precision Temperature Control: The system was engineered to maintain stable conditions across spaces, with sensors strategically placed to monitor and adjust temperatures in real time. This ensures that fluctuations are kept within the specified limits, preserving sensitive materials like wood, canvas, and paper.
Efficient Humidity Management: Advanced humidity sensors allow for real-time monitoring and adjustments. This minimises the risk of deterioration due to environmental changes.
Energy Optimisation: The system balances the heating loads, and takes into account external conditions, internal equipment, and occupancy. This allows for energy-efficient operation without compromising the building’s strict environmental requirements.
Customised User Interface: A user-friendly interface was created for building managers, enabling them to monitor and control all aspects of the environment with ease. This is particularly beneficial in museum spaces, where conditions need to be monitored and adjusted frequently.
AG47 Energy is the only BMS contractor I actually like! – Mike Jones OD Group
Outcome
The system was successfully implemented, providing the required environmental stability and exceeding client expectations. The art gallery is now fully equipped to maintain stable temperature and humidity conditions, essential for the preservation of sensitive materials displayed in the exhibition spaces. The feedback received from the OD Group in praising our team underscores AG47 Energy’s commitment to delivering not only technical excellence but also exceptional customer service.