The expected range changes with context.
General display, sensitive materials, temporary loans and light exposure studies can all need different limits. Profiles keep those expectations explicit and historically reproducible.
LIVE ENVIRONMENTRoman Gallery
Healthy
Temperature21.3°CTarget 20–22°C
Relative humidity48% RHTarget 45–55%
Illuminance120 luxTarget ≤150 lux
Environmental profileGeneral DisplayUpdated 2 min ago
A number is not an environmental record
21.3°C is useful.
Knowing why it matters is better.
A measurement without context cannot tell you which collection it belonged to, what limits applied, whether it was part of a loan or campaign, or what happened when conditions changed.
LÆFAN keeps the reading and the reason together.
A sensor reading
21.3°C
06 Oct 2026 · 10:42
Useful data. Limited evidence.
A LÆFAN record
Roman GalleryWithin profile
- Reading
- 21.3°C
- Sensor
- RG-TEMP-01
- Place
- First Floor · Roman Gallery
- Expected
- 20–22°C · General Display
- Context
- Permanent display
The collection lives in layers
A museum is not one environment.
The display case, gallery, store and outside climate can all tell part of the same story. LÆFAN records those relationships instead of flattening them into one dashboard.
01DISPLAY CASECase 1248% RH · 21.1°C
linked to
02GALLERYRoman Gallery50% RH · 21.3°C
compared with
03EXTERNAL REFERENCEOutside climate76% RH · 17.1°C
An excursion needs more than a red line.
When conditions move outside the expected range, LÆFAN retains acknowledgement, investigation, response and the supporting evidence that follows.
The evidence should outlive the sensor.
Device changes, calibration checks and monitoring campaigns come and go. The environmental record should still explain what was measured and why it mattered at the time.
One record, from reading to response
Follow the environmental story, not just the sensor.
01MeasureContinuous sensors, loggers and spot samples
→
02PlaceLocation, case, room and monitoring point
→
03UnderstandProfiles, campaigns and environmental relationships
→
04RespondAlerts, acknowledgements and investigations
→
05EvidenceHistory, reports and a defensible record
The platform
From the museum floor to the environmental record.
LÆFAN keeps the day to day view calm while preserving the context behind every reading. Start with what needs attention now, then move naturally into the place, profile, evidence and response.
LIVE CONDITIONS21.3°C · 48% RHRoman Gallery · Healthy
CONTEXTGeneral DisplayProfile applied to this location
EVIDENCEHistory retainedReadings, response and review
LÆFAN · Environmental monitoring
Current conditionsLocations & sensorsProfiles & contextAlerts & evidence
Three jobs, one environmental record
Monitor. Understand. Evidence.
LÆFAN is designed around the work collections teams actually need to do, rather than around a single sensor brand or dashboard.
01
Monitor
See what is happening now.
Bring together continuous sensors, connected loggers and manual checks across galleries, stores, cases and historic spaces.
- Live environmental conditions
- Sensor and data source health
- Locations and monitoring points
02
Understand
Know what the reading means here.
Apply historically reproducible limits, relate rooms and cases, and separate routine conditions from loans, exhibitions and investigations.
- Environmental profiles
- Campaigns and relationships
- Light exposure and context
03
Evidence
Keep what happened after the alert.
Retain acknowledgements, investigations, planned checks and specialist samples so the monitoring history still makes sense later.
- Environmental excursions
- Monitoring plans and samples
- Response and review history
Context changes the meaning of a reading
Room, case, outside weather, loan or exhibition. Keep the relationship visible.
A spike in relative humidity means something different in a display case, a store, a temporary exhibition or against a changing outside climate. LÆFAN records those relationships so teams can compare like with like.
See how context becomes evidence →See the record taking shape
Each workflow adds another piece of evidence.
Environmental profiles
Make the expected conditions explicit.
Create reusable profiles for different collections and spaces, assign them at the right level and evaluate stored readings against the context that applied at the time.
- Temperature, relative humidity and light limits
- Effective dates and assignment history
- Sensor, monitoring point and location context
LÆFAN Edge
Keep local systems local.
Bring the evidence together.
Some museum systems only make sense on the museum network. LÆFAN Edge sits locally, collects from them, keeps a short resilient buffer and forwards normalised readings securely to the main LÆFAN platform.
Z
LOCAL RADIOZigbeeEnvironmental sensors and simple devices
T
LOCAL GATEWAYTinytag ConnectIncremental network logger collection
B
BUILDING SYSTEMSModbus · CANPlant and local protocol integrations
museum LAN
ON SITELÆFAN EdgeCollect · normalise · buffer · forward
outbound only
CENTRAL PLATFORM
LÆFAN
Profiles, alerts, evidence, reporting and long term history remain on the main server.
01Collect locally
Read systems that are only reachable from inside the museum network.
02Buffer safely
Keep collecting through a short internet outage without losing observed timestamps.
03Send securely
Use an outbound connection. No inbound museum firewall port is required.
04Keep intelligence central
Alert rules, profiles, reports and compliance logic stay in LÆFAN itself.
Production direction
Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5
A small managed appliance with local storage, hardware interfaces and enough headroom for multiple collectors without becoming a second application server.
A route in for the equipment you already have
Different sources. One environmental record.
LÆFAN separates how a reading arrives from what that reading means. That lets connected sensors, local protocols, reference weather and imported logger files sit alongside one another without flattening their provenance.
01
ON SITE
Through LÆFAN Edge
For systems that need access to the museum LAN, radio coordinator or hardware interface.
ZigbeeLocal environmental devices
Tinytag ConnectNetwork gateway collection
Modbus TCP / RTUBuilding and plant interfaces
CAN busLocal equipment interfaces
BACnet/IP · BLE · MQTTPlanned collector families
02
CENTRAL
Reference & connected data
Sources that can be collected by the main LÆFAN server without putting an appliance in the middle.
Met OfficeExternal weather reference
Open MeteoExternal climate context
UniFi sensorsEnvironmental readings where supported
Vendor APIsAdditional integrations as required
03
HISTORICAL & MANUAL
Import what cannot stream
Keep useful standalone loggers and specialist evidence in the same record even when they are not continuously connected.
Tinytag TTD / CSVStandalone logger history
Mapped CSV importNormalised historical readings
Spot samplesOne off and specialist measurements
Manual evidenceChecks retained with context
Supported / in current buildIn developmentPlanned
Deployment without turning the museum into an IT project
A clear boundary between local collection and the LÆFAN record.
The local appliance does the minimum needed on site. The main platform remains the system of record. That keeps deployment understandable, reduces the attack surface and avoids duplicating business logic across dozens of museum devices.
✓
No inbound Edge firewall ruleLocal collection is forwarded over secure outbound connections.
✓
Local outage resilienceEdge can buffer readings temporarily until connectivity returns.
✓
Client specific deploymentLÆFAN is deployed per organisation rather than mixing museum records into one shared application instance.
✓
Source provenance retainedThe platform knows where readings came from instead of treating every source as interchangeable.
ONE MUSEUM RECORDLocal where it needs to be.
Central where it matters.
Central where it matters.
MUSEUMSensors & systems→LÆFAN Edge
HTTPS outbound
LÆFANEnvironmental record
History · context · alerts · evidence · reports
Simple local roleDurable central record
The outcome
When somebody asks “what happened?”, the answer is already there.
LÆFAN keeps the chain intact from measurement to place, expected conditions, alert, response and evidence. The result is useful during the working day and still understandable months or years later.
Talk to us about your collection →01MEASUREMENTWhat was measured?Reading · sensor · timestamp
02PLACEWhere did it belong?Location · case · room · related environment
03EXPECTATIONWhat should the conditions have been?Profile · campaign · monitoring plan
04RESPONSEWhat happened next?Alert · acknowledgement · investigation · sample
05EVIDENCEA record that still makes sense later.History · reports · review
Collection care in context
Go deeper than the dashboard.
Explore how LÆFAN supports environmental decisions around collection materials, temporary exhibitions, light exposure, linked environments, monitoring evidence and recognised conservation guidance.
Environmental profiles & materials
Why different collections need different limits, and why stability, sensitivity and historic conditions matter.
Explore profiles →Loans & temporary exhibitions
Use campaigns, profiles and monitoring plans to keep temporary monitoring distinct from normal operation.
Explore temporary monitoring →Light exposure & lux hours
Track illuminance and cumulative exposure rather than treating a single lux reading as the whole story.
Explore light exposure →Environmental relationships
Relate cases, rooms, stores and outside references so readings can be interpreted in the right context.
Explore relationships →Monitoring plans & evidence
Record why, where and how monitoring is carried out, then retain the response when conditions change.
Explore evidence →Standards & guidance
A plain English map of relevant British, European and international guidance, and where LÆFAN fits.
Explore guidance →Frequently asked questions
Designed for collections, not generic IoT dashboards.
What is LÆFAN?
LÆFAN is an environmental monitoring and evidence platform for museums, galleries, archives and historic properties. It brings sensor readings, locations, environmental profiles, alerts, monitoring plans and supporting evidence together in one system.
Do we have to replace our existing data loggers?
No. LÆFAN is being designed around multiple data sources, including connected sensors, local collectors and imported logger files, so useful existing monitoring equipment can remain part of the workflow.
What does LÆFAN Edge do?
LÆFAN Edge sits on the local network and collects from systems that need local access. It normalises and buffers readings, then sends them securely to the main LÆFAN platform using outbound connections.
Does LÆFAN Edge decide whether conditions are acceptable?
No. Edge is deliberately a local acquisition and buffering appliance. Environmental profiles, excursion logic, alerts, reporting and the long term evidence record remain in the main LÆFAN platform.
Can LÆFAN distinguish equipment faults from environmental excursions?
Yes. Operational alerts and environmental excursions are treated separately so a failed collector is not confused with a genuine collections condition problem.
Is LÆFAN only for museums?
Museums are the core use case, but the same approach is relevant to galleries, archives, historic houses and other heritage environments where conditions and evidence matter.
See the whole environmental story
See your collection environment as one connected record.
Tell us what you monitor today, which loggers and building systems you already have, and what evidence you need to retain. We can show how LÆFAN would fit around the collection rather than asking the collection to fit around the software.