Phase change material-based building architecture for thermal management in residential and commercial establishments

Abstract

Efficient and economical technology that can be used to store large amounts of heat or cold in a definite volume is the subject of research for a long time. Thermal storage plays an important role in building energy conservation, which is greatly assisted by the incorporation of latent heat storage (LHS) in building products. LHS in a phase change material (PCM) is very attractive because of its high storage density with small temperature swing. It has been demonstrated that for the development of a latent heat storage system (LHTS) in a building fabric, the choice of the PCM plays an important role in addition to heat transfer mechanism in the PCM. Thermal energy storage in the walls, ceiling and floor of buildings may be enhanced by encapsulating or embedding suitable PCMs within these surfaces. They can either capture solar energy directly or thermal energy through natural convection. Increasing the thermal storage capacity of a building can increase human comfort by decreasing the frequency of internal air temperature swings so that the indoor air temperature is closer to the desired temperature for a longer period of time. This paper aims to gather the information from the earlier works on the developments of PCM's incorporation in building, the problems associated with the selection of PCM and the various methods used to contain them for space heating and cooling applications.