Schönbrunn Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, hosted 6.9 million visitors in 2024. With over 5,600 artifacts reliant on strict environmental conditions, invasive HVAC upgrades are restricted by heritage regulations. This project aimed to deploy a minimally intrusive IoT sensor network to stabilize temperature (18–24 °C) and humidity (45–55 %), while cutting curatorial workload and energy waste.

Artifacts like paintings, sculptures, textiles, and other antiquities often date back hundreds of years. Preserving them requires maintaining optimal humidity levels to prevent moisture-related issues like mold, distortion, or decay. This also applies to precious books, ancient manuscripts, and other irreplaceable written materials. Therefore, monitoring temperature and humidity serves as an investment in safeguarding the cultural heritage housed within museums for future generations.

 

 

art depend on tight environmental control to survive

Individual artifacts paintings, textiles, wooden panels, and rare manuscripts depend on tight environmental control.

 

Challenges

  • Unstable climate: Relative‑humidity (RH) swings of ± 3.8 % and daily temperature drifts of 1.6 °C threatened delicate textiles and gilded frames.
  • Labour‑intensive checks: Conservators logged 300 manual inspection hours per year reading stand‑alone data‑loggers.
  • Energy waste: Reactive heating and spot‑cooling added €9500 in annual energy costs.
  • Historical constraints: Walls and stucco cannot be drilled, ruling out hard‑wired sensors or ductwork expansion.

 

manual data checking would take a lot of time in Schonbrunn

Manual temperature checking on data loggers can take a lot of time.

The IoT Solution

As part of this research-oriented project, a network consisting of more than 200 microclimate sensors (SMC30), was implemented. By maintaining stable environmental conditions, Palace preservation personnel can fulfill their responsibility to preserve and protect cultural treasures for future generations to enjoy.

  • Discreet, Battery‑Powered Sensors

212 × SMC30 micro‑climate sensors—each smaller than a matchbox and accurate to ± 0.2 °C / ± 1.5 % RH—were installed across 1 441 rooms (exhibition, storage, corridors). Ten‑year batteries and peel‑&‑stick mounts ensured zero damage to historic fabric.

  • Low‑Impact Connectivity

4 indoor + 1 outdoor LoRaWAN gateways created a palace‑wide network with 128‑bit encryption.

5‑minute sampling produces ≈ 18 million data points per year, streamed to a GDPR‑compliant EU cloud instance.

  • Smart Analytics & Automation

Sensor data feeds directly into the existing Schneider EcoStruxure™ BMS. Predictive thresholds trigger micro‑HVAC adjustments long before conservation limits are breached, while a web dashboard highlights anomalies for the curatorial staff.

 

senzemo dashboard

Data is available on Senzemo dashboard.

 

 

in Schonbrunn over 200 sensors were deployed

Over 200 Senstick SMC30 were deployed.

 

 

LoRaWAN makes it easy to deploy numerous sensors that work for a long time without intervention and are able to connect through just a few gateways.

 

Benefits at a Glance

  • Zero‑invasion deployment—no drilling, no rewiring, full heritage compliance.
  • Cultural heritage secured—temperature and RH kept within EN 15757:2010 guidelines 94 % of the time.
  • Healthier visitor journey—thermal‑comfort complaints dropped 14 % in the first tourist season.
  • Curator freedom—1 14 staff‑hours re‑allocated from manual logging to preventive conservation.
  • Sustainability edge—22 % energy reduction strengthens the palace’s ESG reporting.

 

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See our Blog post on Sensors Are Revolutionizing Museum Preservation for more.