Overview
Bexhill Museum is an independent Arts Council-accredited museum. The primary building is what used to be the Egerton Park Shelter Hall, built in 1903, and now houses the museum’s Sergeant Gallery. The gallery is largely unchanged since it was reopened at the end of World War One, and is scheduled for nearly half a million pounds of repair work in 2025.
Original building (left) and modern extension (right)
The Challenge
Originally fitted with a glass roof, tiled over between the wars, a new roof with insulation to current building standards will be fitted in 2025. This will address severe variations in temperature and humidity that encourage damp and mould and threaten the collections, particularly its costumes, textiles and Edwardian natural history artefacts.
With 24/7 data on the situation before and after the refit, the museum would be better placed to invest in replacing its 1980s air handling system and gas boiler-powered radiators. More data would help make the case for public funds for new equipment that is cost-effective and will help meet the museum's Net Zero ambitions
The Solution
After consulting the Bexhill management team and a thorough site survey, Green Custard installed a central gateway and multiple sensors. Multiple locations for gateway and sensors were tested to identify the correct and most cost-efficient configuration and location of devices to meet the museum’s data-gathering needs.
LoRaWAN devices were selected for their reliability, stability and long-range, low-data capabilities. These record internal temperature and humidity, with external readings obtained from the Met Office for added context. Green Custard developed a dashboard for the Bexhill management team to easily review the data in customised graphs.
Sargent Gallery (left) and the Costume Museum (right)
“It was helpful that Green Custard had worked with charities in our sector that face similar issues around building management, internal environmental control and limited resources. The dashboard interface informs our decisions around all these issues in a practical, accessible way.”
- Rohan Jayasekera
The Results
Data provided by Green Custard’s sensors will be crucial to support funding applications, providing evidence of the scale of the problem and the changes that will follow the 2025 roof insulation works. This will inform the management’s investment longer-term strategy for the gallery, in particular future investment in replacement heating and air handling systems..
LoRaWan technology reduced the number of sensors and gateways required for the solution, reducing installation costs and data fees, but leaving space for expanding the system to other Bexhill Museum galleries in the future. The lightweight hardware did not require new wiring or impact the aesthetics of the historical building.