Archival storage rooms are used to store items that require unique environmental conditions, such as: books, posters, maps, charts, architectural records, still and motion pictures, negatives, x-rays, microfilm, slides, tapes, disks, paintings, sculptures, ceramics, metallic items, bones, fabrics, and more.
Due to the significant value and irreplaceable nature of the items being stored, unique environmental conditions are required — a skill and responsibility that shouldn’t be undertaken by a company designing the HVAC system for the complete building.
At BES, we understand that each historical artifact or record is special and often requires a specialized environment to avoid degradation over time. In many situations, in fact, multiple environments must be created to house various individual items.
With a rich history of designing and building archival storage rooms and facilities for organizations like the Smithsonian, Getty Center, Harvard, and multiple Presidential Libraries, you can be sure that we’ll build a storage environment for you that delivers tight temperature and RH control as well as air handling for clean room environments.
Archival Storage Rooms – Standard Features
- Designed and constructed to comply with National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) standards
- Each space is designed for the precise temperature and humidity level required for preservation of the media or artifact being stored
- Temperature ranges of -18 to 16°C with volumetric uniformity as tight as ±2°C
- Relative Humidity controlled to 30% or lower
- All make-up air brought into the room is purified to control damaging oxidants
- Dehumidification by fully regenerative, non-dusting, desiccant dehumidifiers by Munters
- Air-cooled or water-cooled condensing units
- Fully accessible control panel to efficiently and securely house all controls, alarms, recording devices and communication networks
- QA/QC Bench Testing of complete control panel and electrical devices prior to shipment
- Control Panel certification built to MET, UL 508A
- Conformance to FDA 21 CFR11 requirements for data recording, audit trails of controller settings modification, alarm history logs, operator event logs and secure file transfers
- Touchscreen system control of chamber parameters with 0.1ºC resolution for temperature and 0.1% resolution for RH
- Electrical wiring to National Electric Code (NEC)
- Vapor proof LED, fluorescent, incandescent, or high-bay light fixtures
- Factory leak testing of all refrigeration assemblies prior to shipment
