China’s world famous terracotta army has arrived in Britain and is being held with in a controlled environment at the British Museum by Moducel air handlers.
The arrival of 20 warriors, the largest group of terracotta figures ever lent by China, marked the start of an exhibition at the British Museum called 'The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army' which began in September and ends on April 6.
As the British Museum is a listed building, permission was sought to convert its Round Reading Room for a temporary period.
The Chinese Authorities required tightly controlled environmental conditions for the display of the artefacts with temperatures of 22°C + 2°C and humidity levels of 45% RH + 8%.
Moducel had to design a means of maintaining these conditions irrespective of the variation in load presented by display lighting and up to 400 visitors every hour.
In the exhibition area, eight custom built Moducel LKP units are providing the air conditioning. Four units are identical fresh air units including filters, chilled water-cooling coils.
The other four air handlers are identical recirculation units comprising filters, chilled water cooling coils, LPHW (Low Pressure Hot Water) heating coil and Vapac electrode type humidifiers. The cooling coils in the fresh air-handling units make use of high by-pass technology to maximise dehumidification without reheat.
The re-circulating units pressurise the void beneath the exhibition floor with air supplied via floor mounted swirl diffusers.
Return air is drawn back through grilles around the perimeter enclosure via air handling units including cooling, re-heat coils and integrated Vapac humidifiers to achieve the necessary temperature and humidity control at all times.
The warriors, together with other figures and discoveries were found by chance by villagers in 1974 and are on loan from the Cultural Relics Bureau of Shaanxi Province in Xi'an, China.
Extensive environmental trials were carried out before the exhibition opened to ensure that temperature and relative humidity criteria were being maintained.
A spokesman for Moducel said 'Moducel worked closely with TGA Consulting Engineers and Romec who co-ordinated much of the work, to design the most appropriate solution. Moducel is proud to be associated with such an historic and high profile exhibition and is the latest in a number of projects it has undertaken at the British Museum'.