Experimental analysis of thermal behavior of latent heat thermal energy storage coupled to opaque ventilated façade

Abstract

Opaque ventilated façades are increasingly used in building envelopes due to their potential to reduce summer overheating. During cold seasons, such façades can be used to preheat air before indoor blowing. However, to overcome the mismatch between energy supply and demand, using thermal energy storage may be appropriate. This work investigates the experimental thermal behavior of opaque ventilated façade coupled to latent heat thermal energy storage. The experimental set-up includes a mobile and tilting façade, an air/PCM heat exchanger and a ventilation unit. This system is instrumented with numerous thermocouples, heat flux sensors, mass flow sensors and anemometers. The system is tested in the campus of Université Bretagne Sud (Lorient, France) under various weather and operating conditions. The measurements are analyzed in detail to assess the thermal performance of the system, particularly the energy collected by the façade and the energy stored by the system.