Guardians of History: Precision Air Quality Monitoring

How smart sensors protect a 19th-century ship with real-time environment insights

Historic vessels are more than museum pieces—they’re time capsules crafted from heritage steel and wood. Preserving such a treasure from the late 1800s goes beyond structural care; controlling its microclimate is essential to prevent corrosion, mold, and material decay.

Why monitoring matters on historic ships

Indoor air quality sensors are increasingly used in museums, archives, and heritage sites to safeguard artifacts. Pollutants like CO₂, particulate matter (PM), VOCs, along with temperature and humidity fluctuations, all threaten collections by triggering irreversible damage—such as metal corrosion, wood warping, or mold growth.

In heritage buildings and vessels, maintaining stable conditions is critical: relative humidity swings and poor air quality degrade organic and metallic materials, while corrosion and mold damage can spread silently behind closed panels.

Two gateways, full-ship coverage

Protecting a historic ship can be done, but it has its challenges. Old ships feature watertight compartments—hardly ideal construction for wireless sensors, especially in a steel hull.

For one particular vessel that required monitoring in both the bow and stern sections, two AKKR8 gateways were deployed. One gateway in the bow, one in the stern—wirelessly scan for precision air quality sensors that measure PM, CO₂, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), temperature, and humidity. The readings are sent via cellular connection to the cloud, offering holistic monitoring across the ship's watertight compartments.

The data is encrypted to maintain integrity, and all the sensor readings are displayed for the customer, providing real-time insights, historical data, and alarms if values move outside defined thresholds.

This setup ensures control over the environment yet avoids invasive cabling—ideal for preserving the vessel’s authenticity.

Detecting threats in real time

As with museums and archives, real-time sensing on this ship means environmental risks can be identified before they cause damage. Whether it's rising humidity in a sealed compartment or elevated CO₂ levels, alerts allow staff to take prompt action.

Historical studies highlight that maintaining temperature within ±2 °C and relative humidity around 50 % ±5 % is vital—especially on vessels where steel and wooden materials behave differently.

Proactive conservation in action

This system supports long-term preservation by:

• Continuous data logging: Supporting trend analysis and preventive maintenance

• Automated alerts: Immediately flagging deviations

• Non-invasive deployment: Tespecting compartment integrity

• Scalable architecture: Allowing future expansion to docks or other exhibits

More than preservation

Monitoring extends beyond artifact longevity: it preserves heritage value and strengthens visitor and staff safety. Plus, early environmental control reduces restoration costs and helps maintain condition standards required by museums and insurance bodies.

Next port of call

The system remains fully operational, safeguarding the ship’s legacy. By combining HibouAir precision sensors and AKKR8 gateways, the project demonstrates how real-time air quality data can transform passive display into proactive preservation—keeping history alive on water.