The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland - USA

With a one-of-a-kind building design and a massive total square footage it made certain products impossible to install. This group of experts needed to narrow the list and focus on solutions that would deliver the humidity control performance deserving of this beloved and iconic museum. The current system at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was plagued with maintenance issues that were time-consuming and costly, including components such as square steel inserts that easily developed scale and were difficult to keep clean. It was also proving to be next-to-impossible to maintain the standard of 45 percent RH that the client wished to achieve.

“What was primarily driving the project was the potential for energy savings,” says Michael Goetz, Principal of Northrich Company. “They wanted to justify the upgrade to a high-efficiency Condair installation with projected energy savings rather than rely on reduced expenses from drastically less maintenance.”

This is a concrete testament to how environmentally and budget-friendly such systems can be in the long run, even for a facility with such a unique design.

Condair offers nearly every type of humidification solution one can imagine, from adiabatic cooling to steam humidifiers. This enabled Northrich Company to come in with a wide range of options for the project in question.

“Initially I had six in mind that I felt would work. Since much of the building is clad in glass and features a one-of-a-kind design, however, we narrowed that list over time. For example, Condair’s GS system would have been a wonderful choice for their operations, but since the mostly glass construction didn’t allow for a flue to be run outside, we moved on to other options.”

In the end, a direct room system in the form of the ML Series was chosen. With that particular type of system, Northrich Company was able to essentially hide the tubing and other components discreetly, ensuring an architecturally pleasing installation that also delivers consistent relative humidity control to boost energy savings.

“It’s pretty low-maintenance and low-cost to operate, which is why many clients choose the ML Series,” says Goetz. “In this instance, it operates on a skid system; from there, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame team can route humidification through multiple areas of the building. We’ve also recalculated the load with the help of Jeff Evans at Evans Energy to ensure that the new system can meet their needs with ease.”