This guide presents three generic models for museum storage and archives with low energy consumption. The main difference between this simple approach to climate control and conventional air conditioning is that the inside temperature is allowed to follow the outside annual cycle. The building structure is designed to provide moderate variations in temperature and relative humidity, with a combination of low ventilation rate, thermal insulation and thermal mass. The humidity control takes advantage of the weather pattern and combines humidity buffering with winter heating or summer dehumidification. The concept depends entirely on the ambient climatic conditions and therefore only works in temperate climate zones.
Three types of climate control are described in this text: unheated storage with dehumidification, temperature buffer with dehumidification and conservation heating with humidity buffer.