Impact of building integrated photovoltaic-phase change material panels on building energy efficiency improvement: a case study

Abstract

ABSTRACT Integrating phase change material with building envelopes is recently considered one of the most reliable passive solutions to mitigate indoor temperature fluctuations, improving therefore indoor comfort. In addition, the integration of photovoltaics to combat the gradual increase in energy consumption is highly increasing to meet the growing demand for energy. Using phase change material to improve thermal and electrical performances of building integrated photovoltaic systems and to reduce incoming heat energy indoors, simultaneously, were performed. Interestingly, it is highly recommended to integrate the building integrated photovoltaic phase change material systems on inclined roofs in order to perform the phase change material as preferred through a cyclic process. The peak temperature of the inclined and vertical building integrated photovoltaic systems decreased from 70.5°C and 41°C to 41.4°C and 31°C, respectively. Hence, a drop in average indoor daytime temperature where the peak indoor temperature has been reduced to about 4.5°C. The inclined and vertical building integrated photovoltaic systems’ DC power output, at midday, has been increased from 74.5 W to 108.5 W and 37.5 W to 38.5 W. Eventually, the use of phase change material decreased the thermal load leveling by 7%, 2% and 1.5% during the first three days, respectively, After the third day, the decrease of the thermal load leveling remained constant at 3%. Consequently, findings reveal that using phase change material could be an excellent solution to decrease indoor air temperature fluctuation and can bring higher temperature drops.