Abstract
Active building envelopes that act as energy converters—gathering on-site available renewable energy and converting it to thermal energy or electricity—is a promising technological design niche to reduce energy consumption in the building sector, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and thus tackle climate change challenges. This research adds scientific knowledge in the field of composite building envelope structures containing phase-change materials for thermal energy storage. In this study, the focus lies on the cooling phase of the diurnal gain and release of solar energy. The experimental setup imitates day and night environment. Six alterations of small-scale solar facade modules are tested in two different configurations—with and without the adjustable insulation layer on their outer surface during the discharging phase. Modules explore combinations of aerogel, air gap, and Fresnel lenses for solar energy concentration. The results allow us to compare the impact of the application of an additional insulation layer at “night” for different designs of solar facade modules. The results show that modules with an air gap provide higher heat gains but do not take full advantage of the latent heat capacity of phase-change materials.
Highlights
The EU goal to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 defined in the European Green Deal [1] calls to accelerate the transition to more efficient technologies, consumes less energy, and create less CO2 emissions
Since the building sector consumes 40% of the overall energy and creates 36% of the CO2 emissions in the EU [2], unhesitant measures are needed in this sector, and amendments in directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency [3] call for smarter buildings that can provide better overall energy performance
To ensure a faster transition to decarbonised building stock, there is an urge for new building thermal envelope concepts ensuring both high energy efficiency and the use of on-site available energy
Summary
The EU goal to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 defined in the European Green Deal [1] calls to accelerate the transition to more efficient technologies, consumes less energy, and create less CO2 emissions. A more recent and important direction is the active/adaptive building envelopes that act as energy converters [9,10]; energy that is available on–site is transformed into electrical or thermal energy Such an approach combines the need for advanced building components and promotes the transition to the use of renewable energy instead of fossil. Phase-change materials can serve as the energy storage medium in building thermal envelopes allowing them to store and release energy according to the heating and cooling demands of the building. In passive PCM enhanced solar heating systems, thermal energy from daytime solar radiation is gathered inside the building envelope element (wall, roof, or floor).
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