Wren’s Nest Conservation Update — Installing Data Loggers

This week I installed data loggers throughout the Wren’s Nest that measure relative humidity and temperature.  It’s the first step in planning for a new and exciting HVAC system.

Our HVAC system was installed about twenty years ago.  Since that time, there have been tremendous advances in technology and efficiency.  Perhaps you have heard of a little thing I like to call “computers.”

Plus, an aging system often hemorrhages money.  As you might have guessed, ours is no exception.

To evaluate your HVAC system properly, you’re going to need a lot of data.  Like, a year or two’s worth of data.  Hence, we’ve put data loggers in just about every room, though I can’t always remember exactly where.

From what I’ve gathered about HVAC systems in historic preservation settings — which is, admittedly, very little — there are two schools of thought:

1. “You need a system that’s going to cost $30,000.”
2. “You need a system that’s going to cost $400,000.”

That’s… a difference.  I think it breaks down to being pretty darn efficient for $30K or being ridiculously efficient for nearly half a million dollars.

Luckily for the Wren’s Nest, many house museums are finding that their HVAC systems are over-designed and inefficient.  I wonder what it’s like to discover something in your museum is over-designed.  A boy can dream, I guess.

The most exciting part of data logging is that once a month I have the honor of collecting the data and refreshing each data logger.  It’s almost hard to believe I get paid to do it.