The relationship between heating energy and cumulative damage to painted wood in historic churches

Abstract

Existing research on climate-induced damage needs to be verified by actual observations in authentic environments. This article suggests a complementary method to relate the historic and present indoor climate to damage on painted wooden objects in historic churches. Energy consumption, as revealed by archival sources, is used as a substitute for climate records, on the assump-tion that higher temperature and therefore lower relative humidity will occur more frequently in churches with greater expenses for fuel. The quantified energy consumption is related to damage of wood and the painted layers of pulpits in 16 churches. There is a slight correlation between damage to the paint on the pulpits and energy released in the churches. However larger populations are needed for this type of enquiry to be further developed and extended.