Comparative analysis of the PCM application according to the building type as retrofit system

Abstract

It is necessary to reduce the environmental load by reducing the energy consumption in the building sector. As one of the preferred methods, phase change materials (PCMs) are considered to be promising to store and discharge thermal energy. Recently, many studies of PCM applications in buildings by simulation tools have been conducted. However, there is not much research on glass curtain wall building (GCW) systems applied to PCM installation compared to conventional wall-based buildings (CWB). The objective of this paper is to investigate the optimization of PCM applied to GCW and to evaluate the building energy performance by EnergyPlus. A building model was selected from ASHRAE Standard 90.1–2013 prototype buildings, and Baltimore, Duluth, and Miami in ASHRAE climate classification was used as the input climate data. In this study, the experiment used Shape-stabilized PCM (SSPCM) with mixing ratio of n-octadecane and n-heptadecane (7:3), selected owing to the energy efficiency in the thermal comfort range based on ISO 13790. Considering PCM application to GCWs and CWBs, it is important to apply the optimized PCM considering the different approaches between GCWs and CWBs. In addition, a PCM melting temperature of 25 °C was the most suitable setting for the retrofit. PCM installation on a wall, a floor, and a ceiling with the same melting temperature was the most effective approach.