Home / Uses / Backup power for a rural art gallery's climate control

Steady air for the artworks when the power fails

Regional and rural galleries care for paintings, textiles and works on paper that suffer when humidity swings. This page looks at keeping climate control and security running through an outage.

Humidity is the quiet risk

A short power cut does little harm to a painting. A long one, in a humid summer or a damp winter, lets the air in a gallery drift, and timber panels, canvas and paper respond. Climate control units, dehumidifiers and the monitoring loggers that record conditions are the loads that matter most. A small gallery's climate plant usually fits within 15 kW.

What it would keep running

Climate control units
Dehumidifiers
Temperature and humidity loggers
Alarms, cameras and access control
Gallery and display lighting

Security and the loan agreements

Galleries borrowing works often agree to keep them in stated conditions and under working security. Alarms, cameras and access control are small loads but cannot drop out. With the battery and inverter in UPS mode, there is no gap at all when the grid fails, so the alarm panel and loggers keep running without a reset.

A large gallery with a big central air handling plant and many rooms may draw more than 15 kW, especially in summer. That would need a larger or multi-unit setup sized in the pilot, and the gallery's conservators and building engineers would be part of that decision.

How it works →

The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

Quiet and clean

There is no engine and no exhaust near the building, which matters when pollutants can harm artworks. The fuel cell's by-product is water, which goes back into the loop rather than into the galleries. Hydrogen stored at 30 bar or less keeps for weeks. Round trip efficiency is 30% or less, so this is about protecting the collection, not saving money.

Questions

Will it hold exact conditions for loaned works?

It keeps the climate equipment powered. Whether conditions hold depends on that equipment and the building. The gallery's own conservation procedures stay in charge, and the system supports them rather than replacing them.

Could fuel cell water vapour affect humidity?

The fuel cell's water goes back into the system's loop and the unit sits outdoors, away from the galleries. Nothing from it is released into the display spaces, and the gallery's own loggers would confirm that conditions stay steady.

Can it run a large gallery's air handling plant?

A big central plant may draw more than 15 kW, especially in summer. That would need a larger or multi-unit setup sized in the pilot, with the building engineers involved.

Elsewhere

Every use →

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