Experimental Evaluation of the Effects of Passive Phase Change Material Walls on the Building Demand Response for Smart Grid Applications

Abstract

Central air-conditioning systems play a significant role in the demand response (DR) strategies of buildings due to their high energy consumption and flexible energy use. Previous simulation-based studies have shown that the use of phase change materials (PCM) in building envelopes can substantially increase cold storage capacity, which is a key measure for improving the DR performance of buildings. In this study, we experimentally investigated the effect of passive PCM walls on DR performance and conducted quantitative experiments on factors affecting the precooling performance of PCM walls. During DR events, compared to Ordinary walls without a precooling and DR stage, passive PCM walls reduced room cooling loads by 75.05%, electricity consumption by 49.57%, and peak electricity consumption by 31.06%. Additionally, in the precooling period, the impact of the room precooling temperature on passive PCM precooling performance was experimentally studied. When the room precooling temperature was reduced gradually from 21.14 °C to 18.24 °C, the precooling period could be significantly shortened by between 14.58 and 40.43%, and the room cooling load firstly increased and then decreased, during which the cooling load reduction was up to 13.87%.