Air quality in low-ventilated museum storage buildings

Modern low-energy museum storage buildings are often designed for a low air exchange rate, on the order of less than 1 exchange per day. We investigated how this affected the indoor air quality in six Danish museum storage buildings. The infiltration of ambient pollutants, and the level to which internally-generated pollutants accumulate, were measured by passive sampling of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and organic acids. The air exchange rates and the interchange of air between storage rooms were measured by the per-fluorocarbon tracer gas method. Ambient pollutants were reduced in concentration to a few ppb indoors. The presence of internally-generated pollutants depended on the amount of off-gassing materials inside the store, but more importantly, on the temperature. Enclosing objects in corrugated cardboard boxes did not cause any significant accumulation of pollutants. However, the box-board did provide a certain degree of protection against ambient pollutants, especially ozone.