A new approach to moisture detection in buildings by an optical method is presented. Limits of classical and new methods are discussed. The state of the art about the use of IR thermography is illustrated as well. The new technique exploits characteristics of the materials and takes into account explicitly the heat and mass exchange between surface and environment. A set of experiments in controlled laboratory conditions on different materials is used to better understand the physical problem. The testing procedure and the data reduction are illustrated. A case study on a heritage building points up the features of this technique.

Museums are major energy consumers amongst buildings, especially if they are housed in historical constructions. Museums usually present high energy demand for the air-conditioning due to their architectonical and structural characteristics, such as the presence of large exhibition rooms and open spaces. At the same time, temperature and humidity have to be strictly controlled in order to assure proper microclimate conditions for the conservation of the housed collections and adequate thermal comfort for visitors and personnel. Moreover, despite being subjected to architectural protection that limits most structural refurbishment interventions, these buildings must be adequate from an energy point of view to allow their reuse or continuity of use according to current quality standards, while retaining their heritage significance. In this awkward context, ground source heat pump working with high temperature terminals is proposed as a viable refurbishment solution. The use of shallow geothermal systems can improve the energy efficiency of the heating ventilation air-conditioning systems and, at the same time, increases the renewable energy source exploitation without affecting the indoor environmental conditions. However, after the interventions, the expected benefits and the sought-after limitation of energy consumption/cost may not occur for different reasons. In fact, even if the installed solution is working perfectly and properly designed, every effort will be in vain if adequate attention is not paid to the management of the plants during the operational phase. This document is meant to evaluate and compare the magnitude that invasive (i.e., technical interventions) and not invasive (i.e., energy management policies) actions respectively and their combined interaction, have on a museum. Through energy simulations it has been possible to quantify the effects that different interventions and energy management strategies had on an existing museum housed in an historical building, from energy consumption, energy costs and CO₂ emission standpoints.

The subflorescence and efflorescence phenomena are widely acknowledged as the major causes of permanent damage to fresco wall paintings. They are related to the occurrence of cycles of dry/wet conditions inside the walls. Therefore, it is essential to identify the presence of water on the decorated surfaces and inside the walls.Nondestructive testing in industrial applications have confirmed that active infrared thermography with continuous timed images acquisition can improve the outcomes of thermal analysis aimed to moisture identification. In spite of that, in cultural heritage investigations these techniques have not been yet used extensively on a regular basis. This paper illustrates an application of these principles in order to evaluate the decay of fresco mural paintings in a medieval chapel located in North−West of Italy. One important feature of this study is the use of a robotic system called aIRview that can be utilized to automatically acquire and process thermal images. Multiple accurate thermal views of the inside walls of the building have been produced in a survey that lasted several days. Signal processing algorithms based on Fast Fourier Transform analysis have been applied to the acquired data in order to formulate trustworthy hypotheses about the deterioration mechanisms.