An experimental assessment of bio-mixed-phase change material in a lightweight compartment and its potential as latent energy storage in north-east climate of India

Abstract

ABSTRACT The temperature fluctuations in a room directly influence the heating and cooling load of buildings and their energy consumption rate. To manage thermal loading, the use of passive technologies is in a recent trend with the application of Phase-changing materials (PCM). The major problem of material availability in a developing country is solved with the mixing of two easily available phase change materials. Paraffin is better in latent storage and palm oil with the low melting application is combined in definite proportion. In this experimental work, Paraffin-based Palm oil (7030) mixed Bio PCM is studied incorporating in a two small-scaled compartment. The first compartment is a reference room with insulation and the other with addition to a 20 mm PCM layer. The temperature fluctuation is studied with two cases of the orientation of the window. It is found that the average reduction in temperature fluctuation is found to be in the range of 1–2 C and maximum peak temperature reduction of 3 C and minimum peak temperature gain of 2 C is achieved, also heat transfer reduction through the walls is 4046% with PCM incorporation which is comparable to most recent works on different phase change materials and satisfies the energy storage potential of Bio PCM.