This paper provides a performance evaluation of tree and mesh routing topologies of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in a cultural heritage site. The historical site selected was San Juan Bautista church in Talamanca de Jarama (Madrid, Spain). We report the preliminary analysis required to study the effects of heating in this historical location using WSNs to monitor the temperature and humidity conditions during periods of weeks. To test which routing topology was better for this kind of application, the WSNs were first deployed on the upper floor of the CAEND institute in Arganda del Rey simulating the church deployment, but in the former scenario there was no direct line of sight between the WSN elements. Two parameters were selected to evaluate the performance of the routing topologies of WSNs: the percentage of received messages and the lifetime of the wireless sensor network. To analyze in more detail which topology gave the best performance, other communication parameters were also measured. The tree topology used was the collection tree protocol and the mesh topology was the XMESH provided by MEMSIC (Andover, MA, USA). For the scenarios presented in this paper, it can be concluded that the tree topology lost fewer messages than the mesh topology.

The installation of heating systems in buildings and monuments not designed to accommodate such facilities poses technical difficulties, particularly where occupancy and hence system use is sporadic, such as in churches, cathedrals, synagogues, mosques and other places of worship. Furthermore, building materials and architecture may detract from system efficiency. An additional difficulty is the source of energy: when monuments are in remote areas, fuels such as natural gas may not be available, although on occasion they may not be used even when they are available. The present study explores the thermal comfort provided by heating systems generally used in Spanish churches: decentralized gas burner system (propane) and centralized air heating systems (natural gas, fuel oil) based on a new monitoring methodology using temperature, relative humidity and airflow sensors. The church at Talamanca de Jarama (fuel oil) delivered the highest thermal comfort based on environmental conditions, whereas the system installed at Algete (natural gas) was the most energy efficient. The requirements of each heating system were assessed relative to the conservation of the desired indoor conditions, considering energy, comfort and aesthetic factors.