Latent Heat Capacity Research Articles

Al–Si @ Al2O3 @ mullite microcapsules for thermal energy storage: Preparation and thermal properties

Encapsulation is an effective method to prevent leakage of molten phase change materials (PCMs). However, it is difficult for microcapsules to acquire high latent heat capacity as well as good thermal cycling performance. In the present study, double shell microcapsules, using aluminum silicon alloy as the core, Al2O3 as the inner shell, and mullite as the outer shell, were prepared for heat storage by steam corrosion followed by silica sol immersion and high-temperature calcination. A cross-section of microcapsule showed that the total thickness of the double shell was approximately 1.5 μm. The latent heat storage and latent heat release of the microcapsules were 367.1 J g−1 and 298.4 J g−1 and still remained 90.4% and 80.0% after 3000 thermal cycles, respectively. The latent heat storage and release rate were 72.0 J g−1·min−1 and 20.3 J g−1·min−1, respectively. With an increase of temperature from 40 to 950 °C, the calculated total heat absorption of the microcapsules reached as high as 1850.3 J g−1, 22.7% greater than that without phase change. This double shell microcapsule has a high potential to be used in thermal energy storage systems.

Enhanced thermophysical properties of Metal oxide nanoparticles embedded magnesium nitrate hexahydrate based nanocomposite for thermal energy storage applications

Abstract This paper investigates the effect of metal oxide (MOx) nanoparticles on thermophysical properties of phase change material (PCM) for thermal energy storage applications. Different types of (MOx) nanoparticles include Titanium di-oxide (TiO2), Zinc oxide (ZnO), Ferric oxide (Fe2O3) and Silicon di-oxide (SiO2) were added independently in the magnesium nitrate hexahydrate, an inorganic salt hydrate PCM, to form PCM-metal oxide nanocomposite by melt mixing technique. The scanning electron microscopy was done to investigate the shape and morphology of nanoparticles and their uniform distribution in the PCM matrix. Structural and interaction between nanoparticles and PCM were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic techniques, respectively. The cyclic stability of the prepared nanocomposites was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis. Nanoparticles concentration in the PCM matrix is very crucial and needs to be carefully optimized to maximize the thermal conductivity enhancement and herein we found that 0.5 wt.% of NPs in PCM matrix show promising thermophysical properties. Thermal conductivity of PCM-metal oxide nanocomposites was improved by 147.5%, 62.5%, 55% and 45% by the addition of 0.5 wt.% TiO2, ZnO, Fe2O3 and SiO2, respectively. The addition of nanoparticles modified the phase change process of PCM nanocomposites and also reduced the phase change temperature range. Besides thermal conductivity enhancement, these also eliminate supercooling while maintain the latent heat capacity. The heat transfer characteristics of PCM-metal oxides nanocomposites were analyzed by conventional heating systems. The PCM-TiO2 nanocomposite demonstrates the best heat transfer characteristics and reduces the phase transition time performances amongst the other metal oxide nanoparticles. It was found that the charging and discharging rate increased by 33% and 77.5% respectively, upon using 0.5 wt.% TiO2 in comparison to pristine PCM and used as a potential material in instant solar water heating system for solar thermal energy storage application.

Application of granular materials for void space reduction within packed bed thermal energy storage system filled with macro-encapsulated phase change materials

In the paper, various granular materials as potential fillers for the void space in between macro-encapsulated phase change materials of packed bed thermal energy storage are studied. Once filled with suitable granular materials, void space of the packed bed storage, which is the main drawback of this type of storage can be significantly reduced while providing improved storage capacity per designed volume. Thus, four different materials, namely, quartzite pebbles, aluminum particles, alumina particles and micro-encapsulated n-decane are considered as potential granular fillers for packed beds. Their effect on the charge and discharge time, storage efficiency and overall storage capacity are evaluated using four parametric analyses: different macro-encapsulated phase change materials, encapsulation sizes, types of granular materials and heat transfer fluid flow rates. Among the granular materials, alumina particles ensured the highest overall increment on the amount of stored thermal energy due to their high density and heat capacity, while micro-encapsulated n-decane particles provided the highest overall enhancement on the cyclic efficiency of the packed bed storage. It was noticed that the granular materials operate at their highest capacity when combined with in-house-developed phase change materials with ultra-low phase change temperature. When coupled with other phase change materials with higher phase change temperature or latent heat capacity, the advantages of filling the void space with the granular materials diminished. Moreover, void space reduction with the granular materials helps maintain the storage efficiency while allowing increase in phase change material encapsulation size to reduce its overall cost.

Characterisation and stability analysis of eutectic fatty acid as a low cost cold energy storage phase change material

Abstract Phase Change Material (PCM) is one of the most promising material for storing thermal energy and supplying the stored energy for cooling applications but low cost, easily available PCM are quiet less. The present work focused on the development of a suitable eutectic PCM for low temperature applications like building cooling, based on organic fatty acids, capric acid (CA) and myristic acid (MA) in the mass ratio of 85:15 and investigating their thermal properties, chemical and thermal stabilities by using by using DSC, FT-IR, TGA and KD2 Pro. Thermal cycle test were also investigated through developed thermal cycle equipment. The properties were also compared with their individual fatty acids. From the DSC test, the latent heat capacity was determined as 156.99 J/g and the phase change temperature as 20.86 °C. Thermal conductivity of liquid CA-MA PCM was measured as 0.152 W/mK. Thermal gravimetric analysis results revealed that the eutectic PCM had high thermal stability. Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) revealed that the binary eutectic mixture had good chemical stability. Thus, the new low-cost, CA-MA eutectic PCM possessed high latent heat for low temperature with good thermal and chemical stabilities making it a potential phase change material for cold energy storage applications.

Thermohydraulic and condensing phase-change analysis within the indoor unit of a split-type air-conditioner

Split-type air conditioners (SACs) are widely used in households and offices. To aid the design of a SAC, this study develops a theoretical thermohydraulic and condensing phase-change model for the two-dimensional indoor unit of a small-sized SAC. It also adopts the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software-ANSYS FLUENT V19.1 to analyze its internal flow field and heat and mass transfer performance. To simulate the thermal performance of the evaporators, we employed the non-equilibrium thermal model to predict the temperature distribution of the aluminum fins and wet air. The two-phase mixture model was used to simulate the transport phenomena of wet air and liquid water within the SAC. We used Fick’s law and Chilton-Colburn analogy to predict the condensation rate on the surfaces of the round tubes and the compact fins of the evaporators, respectively. We also compared the results of the volume flow rate and the sensible and latent heat capacities of the indoor unit predicted by the CFD method with those measured by the experiments, revealing that both results were in close agreement and that the model developed in this study was accurate.

Preparation and Characterization of Paraffin@CLPS/MS Phase Change Microcapsules for Thermal Energy Storage

AbstractIn this study, a series of encapsulated micro phase change material (EMPCM) based on industrial paraffin and inorganic‐organic hybrid shell was reported. The microcapsules (28#P@CLPS/MS) were synthesized with 28#paraffin (28#P) as phase change material (PCM), crosslinked polystyrene (CLPS) as flexible organic shell and modified nano SiO2(MS) as rigid inorganic shell, via a Pickering emulsion polymerization method. MS reduces the interfacial tension of water and plays a good emulsification effect. Secondly, after polymerization, the mechanical stability of the microcapsule shell can be enhanced, and the thermal reliability of the phase change microcapsules can be improved. The morphology, thermal energy storage capacity, and structure of microcapsules were characterized and analyzed. Besides, the grafting ratio of nano SiO2on the heat storage properties of microcapsules was investigated. When the graft ratio of nano‐SiO2was 4.2 %, the prepared microcapsules with highst paraffin content (54.37 %) and encapsulation efficiency (95.15 %). The synthesized microcapsules with regular spherical shape and size range of 1–5 μm, latent heat capacity (Tm28.20 °C, 86.35 J/g) and good thermal stability. Besides, the chemical composition of the microcapsules did not change after 500 cycles, and the latent heat did not decrease. Our research shows that Pickering emulsion polymerization is a convenient, economical and green method for the preparation of highly stable energy storage microcapsules.

3D graphene paraffin composites based on sponge skeleton for photo thermal conversion and energy storage

Multifunctional phase change composites, which have both high photo-thermal conversion capability and high latent-heat capacity, are in great demand for large number of applications. In this work, a shape-stabilized reduced graphene oxide sponge-based phase change composite that has reduced graphene oxide decorated melamine sponge as a support and paraffin wax as a filler was fabricated. Because of the lipophilicity of the reduced graphene oxide, paraffin wax is well adsorbed on the skeleton of the sponge. The loading percentage of paraffin wax could reach up to ~98%. Compared to pure sponge, the anti-leakage ability of the composite showed great improvements. The melting temperature and latent heat of the composite was 56 °C and 143.0 J/g, respectively. The reduced graphene oxide also gave the prepared phase change composites good solar absorption efficiencies that reached 95%. Under solar light irradiation, the composites could effectively harvest and convert solar energy into thermal energy. The phase change thermal storage efficiency reached up to 88.7%. Based on the heat storage characteristics of the phase change composites, a solar-driven thermoelectricity experiment was conducted, and results showed that the thermal energy was stored in the phase change materials and released over an elongated period, during which the open circuit voltage reached to 1.30 V. Therefore, the multifunctional phase change composites have potential for applications in various sustainable uses, including as solar thermal-energy storage, and waste-heat recovery.

Long-term thermophysical behavior of paraffin wax and paraffin wax/polyaniline (PANI) composite phase change materials

Abstract Phase change Material (PCM) has immense potential in the field of energy storage due to its latent heat capacity. In this study, accelerated thermal cycling is performed on Paraffin wax (PW) and Paraffin Wax/Polyaniline (PWP-1) composite up to 3000 cycles to evaluate its durability. The latent heat of PW reduced by 6.7% at the end of 3000 cycles, whereas the composite PWP-1 reduced by 9.8% but PWP-1 had higher latent heat values compared to PW. The melting temperature showed an increment with the number of thermal cycles with 11.7% and 23% increment for PW and PWP-1 composite respectively. Thermogravimetric analysis showed very little change in the weight degradation after thermal cycling, but the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry showed a new absorption peak for PW and PWP-1, which may be due to the formation of carbon/char. Visual and microscopic images of the samples are analyzed. From the study it can be concluded that PWP-1 composite has better thermal reliability in terms of latent heat as compared to PW and can be used in the field of solar application like flat plate solar collector, photovoltaic thermal system and low concentrated photovoltaic thermal systems for the production of domestic hot water application.

Experimental investigation of solar photovoltaic panel integrated with phase change material and multiple conductivity-enhancing-containers

Among all passive methods for photovoltaics (PV) cooling, phase change material (PCM) can be highly effective due to high latent heat capacity. However, very low thermal-conductivity of PCM restricts its potential. The proposed work focuses on the enhancement of rate of heat transfer from PV to PCM by using conductivity-enhancing-containers. The proposed approach was experimented outdoor and compared with the reference panel for different seasons at Chennai, India. PV temperature, open circuit voltage, short circuit current, Current-Voltage (I–V) and Power-Voltage (P–V) curves, fill-factors, power outputs, efficiency and daily electricity generation are reported. The results show that the proposed heat sink was able to decrease the maximum PV temperature from 64.4 °C to 46.4 °C for January and 77.1 °C to 53.8 °C for June. It increased the open circuit voltage of PV from 24.3 V to 26.4 V for January and 23.6 V to 26.0 V for June. The fill-factor increased from 0.678 to 0.705 for January. Consequently, the electrical efficiency increased from 9.5% to 10.5% during noon. Daily electricity generation increased from 769 Wh/day to 817 Wh/day during January and 948 Wh/day to 1026 Wh/day during June. Thus, daily electricity generation increased by 6.2% for January and 8.3% for June using proposed approach.

Nanoflake-Constructed Supramolecular Hierarchical Porous Microspheres for Fire-Safety and Highly Efficient Thermal Energy Storage.

The leakage and fire hazard of organic solid-liquid phase change material (PCM) tremendously limit its long-term and safe application in thermal energy storage and regulation. In this work, novel nanoflake-fabricated organic-inorganic supramolecular hierarchical microspheres denoted as BPL were synthesized through the electrostatically driven assembly of poly(ethylene ammonium phenylphosphamide) (BP) decorated layered double hydroxides using sodium dodecyl sulfate as a template. Then the BPL was simultaneously utilized as a porous supporting material and flame retardant for polyethylene glycol to fabricate shape-stabilized PCM (BS-PCM). Benefiting from the structural uniqueness of the BPL microsphere, the BS-PCM possessed a high latent heat capacity of 116.7 J g-1 and excellent thermoregulatory capability. Moreover, the BS-PCM had no apparent leakage after a 200-cycle heating/cooling process and showed excellent thermal reversibility, superior to similar solid-liquid PCMs reported in recent literature. More interestingly, unlike flammable PEG, BS-PCM showed excellent fire resistance when exposed to a fire source. The unique BPL porous microsphere provided not only a microcontainer with high storage capacity for solid-liquid PCM, but also a fire resistant barrier to PEG, supplying a promising solution for highly efficient and fire-safe thermal energy storage.

Performance evaluations of an adsorption-based power and cooling cogeneration system under different operative conditions and working fluids

In order to harvest low-grade waste heat below 80 °C, we present an alternative adsorption-based power and cooling cogeneration system, which consists of an adsorption-based desalination system for generating concentrated and diluted salt solutions as well as providing cooling power, and a pressure retarded osmosis system for converting the produced salinity gradient energy into electricity. Effects of operation conditions, adsorbents, salt types and solvents are systematically investigated to evaluate the coefficient of performance (COP), electric efficiency, and exergy efficiency of the hybrid system. Results reveal that there exists an optimal desorption temperature leading to the maximum COP and electric efficiency. Larger salt concentration results in upgraded electrical efficiency and exergy efficiency, and degraded COP. Adsorbents with larger relative pressure where the adsorbent achieves half of the maximum absorption uptake and moderate adsorption enthalpy are more appealing. Solvents with high vaporization latent heat and specific heat capacity contribute to COP, however, decrease electrical efficiency and exergy efficiency. Salts rendering a larger osmotic coefficient improve electric and exergy efficiencies, however degrade the COP. When operating at a desorption temperature of 50 °C, the maximum exergy efficiency can reach 33.9%, meanwhile the electric efficiency and COP are 1.63% and 0.87, respectively.

Thermal properties of sonicated graphene in coconut oil as a phase change material for energy storage in building applications1

Abstract This study aims to investigate the thermal properties of a phase change material (PCM) based on coconut oil for building energy storage applications. Coconut oil is classified as an organic PCM composed of fatty acids made from renewable feedstock. However, low thermal conductivity is one of the major drawbacks of organic PCMs that must be improved. Graphene could be an effective material to enhance the thermal performance of organic PCMs. In this study, coconut oil with a latent heat capacity of 114.6 J/g and a melting point of 17.38°C was used. PCMs were prepared by sonicating graphene into coconut oil, as a supporting material. The mass fractions of the prepared PCMs were 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. Thermal conductivity tests were performed using a KD2 thermal property analyser under different ambient temperatures of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25°C simulated with a circulating thermostatic bath. The latent heat, melting point and freezing point were determined through differential scanning calorimetry, the thermal stability was determined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the morphology and chemical structure were examined using transmission electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, respectively. The results of this study showed that graphene addition to coconut oil improved the thermal performance, with the highest improvement seen in a 0.3 wt% sample at 20°C. The latent heat decreased by 11% owing to molecular movements within the PCM. However, TGA revealed that the composite PCMs showed good thermal stability in ambient building temperature ranges.

Solar Photovoltaic Panels with Finned Phase Change Material Heat Sinks

Phase change material (PCM) based passive cooling of photovoltaics (PV) can be highly productive due to high latent heat capacity. However, the low rate of heat transfer limits its usefulness. Thus, the presented work aims at the improvement in PV cooling by using finned PCM (FPCM) heat sinks. In the present study, PCM heat sink and FPCM heat sinks were investigated numerically for PV cooling and the extracted heat is used for space heating. 4 kWp PV, PV-PCM and PV-FPCM systems were studied under the weather conditions of Southeast of England. It was observed that the PCM heat sinks can drop the peak PV temperature by 13 K, whereas FPCM heat sinks can enhance the PV cooling by 19 K. The PCM heat sinks can increase the PV electrical efficiency from 13% to 14%. Moreover, the daily electricity generation can be boosted by 7% using PCM and 8% by using FPCM heat sinks. In addition, 7 kWh of thermal output was achieved using the FPCM heat sink, and the overall efficiency of system increased from 13% to 19%.

Non-Newtonian phase-change heat transfer of nano-enhanced octadecane with mesoporous silica particles in a tilted enclosure using a deformed mesh technique

In the present study, the melting phase-change heat transfer of nano-enhanced phase-change octadecane by using mesoporous silica particles is investigated in an inclined cavity, theoretically. The presence of mesoporous silica particles induces non-Newtonian effects in the molten octadecane. A phase-change interface-tracking approach, deformed mesh technique, is employed to track the phase-change interface and heat transfer in the cavity. The Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) moving mesh technique along with the finite element method is adopted to solve the governing equations for conservation of mass, momentum, and energy during the phase-change process. A re-meshing technique and an automatic time step control approach are employed to control the quality of the deformed mesh and the computed numerical solution. The effect of various mass fractions of nanoparticles and various inclination angles of the enclosure on the heat transfer and phase-change behavior of nano-enhanced octadecane are addressed. The outcome reveals that using the mesoporous silica particles diminish the heat transfer in the enclosure. Although the presence of nanoparticles improved the conductive heat transfer, a reduction in the phase-change heat transfer performance of the enclosure can be observed, which is due to the increase of the viscosity (consistency parameter) of the liquid and suppression of natural convective flows. Moreover, the presence of nanoparticles reduces the latent heat capacity of octadecane as they do not contribute to the phase-change energy storage. Dispersing 5% mass fraction of nanoparticles in octadecane can reduce the heat transfer up to 50% and increase the consistency parameter by three folds. The angle of inclination of the cavity also plays an important role in the heat transfer characteristics. Tilting the cavity by -75° leads to an 80% reduction in the heat transfer.

A novel polyaniline (PANI)/ paraffin wax nano composite phase change material: Superior transition heat storage capacity, thermal conductivity and thermal reliability

An energy source is required that has potential to reduce global warming, energy cost and create environmental sustainability. Solar energy is a viable candidate with 120 petajoules of energy on earth per second. To utilize this energy the present research explores the effect of the addition of conducting polyaniline (PANI) and cupric (II) oxide (CuO) nanoparticles within the matrix of paraffin wax. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Ultraviolet–Visible-Near Infrared Spectrometer (UV–VIS) and thermal conductivity characterization of the prepared composite were performed. An enhancement of latent heat capacity of paraffin/PANI nanocomposite by 8.20% and paraffin/CuO composite by 7.81% was observed. Thermal conductivity of Paraffin/PANI was increased by ~46.8% for a 1% weight concentration of PANI in paraffin wax the same concentration as maximum latent heat capacity. In the case of paraffin/CuO composite, the maximum increment of thermal conductivity was found to be ~63.6%. To check the thermal reliability of the formulated nanocomposite, the base paraffin and nanocomposites were subjected to thermal cycling of 200 cycles. The DSC results showed that paraffin/PANI nanocomposite outperformed both base paraffin wax and paraffin/CuO composite. With comparable thermal conductivity to Paraffin/CuO composite, better latent heat capacity and improved thermal reliability Paraffin/PANI composite results are encouraging for the application in solar application area.

Sustainable fiber reinforced cementitious panels containing PCM: Mechanical and thermal performance

An experimental study was planned and executed for the application of Phase Change Materials (PCM) containing fiber-reinforced cementitious panels on buildings. The objective of the research was to enhance the thermal performance of the panels. Panels with the dimensions of 60x120x2.5 cm were produced and experimental investigations about the thermal and the mechanical performance of the composites were carried out. PCM containing composites showed higher latent heat capacity and lower thermal conductivity. Reinforcement with chopped fibers compensated the strength loss due to PCM in cementitious panels. Specific fracture energy of the panels increased with increase of PCM ratio. PCM containing fiber reinforced cementitious panels showed great potential for energy efficient buildings with enhanced thermal and mechanical properties.

A Novel Method for Predicting Power Transient CHF via the Heterogeneous Spontaneous Nucleation Trigger Mechanism

Using the Laplace transform for solving a two-region (cladding/liquid) conduction problem with an exponentially increasing heat flux boundary condition, an analytic temperature profile has been found. The rate of the temperature increase in the second region (liquid) is used to determine energy deposition in the thermal boundary layer of the liquid. Energy deposition rates are then compared to the latent heat capacity of the growing thermal boundary layer to create a condition for predicting transient critical heat flux (CHF) via the heterogeneous spontaneous nucleation (HSN) trigger mechanism. These analytic predictions are then compared to existing data for exponential power ramp transients with periods ranging from 5 ms up to 10 s. Comparison with experimental data show that the trends of the expected HSN-triggered CHF are in good agreement with the magnitude being controlled by the determination of the maximum boundary layer energy. This work presents the first known attempts to derive a mechanistic CHF prediction model for HSN. Though further work is necessary to develop the HSN model (and is being pursued in parallel to this research), this work will allow for a quantitative prediction of HSN-triggered CHF. Further developments of the HSN model will inform the boundary layer energy threshold that triggers CHF.

N-eicosane/expanded graphite as composite phase change materials for electro-driven thermal energy storage

• High latent heat composites were obtained by using EG as a support matrix. • The composites has much higher thermal conductivity than pure C20. • The composite with 15 wt.% EG shows excellent electro-to-heat conversion performance. Latent heat storage (LHS) is considered to be a promising technique for thermal energy storage, due to its high energy storage density and nearly constant working temperature. However, the phase change materials (PCMs) used in LHS usually suffer from low thermal conductivity. In this work, the expanded graphite (EG) was applied to support n-eicosane (C20) via vacuum impregnation to prepare C20/EG composite PCMs. The DSC analysis indicated that the C20/EG 15 has latent heat values of 199.4 J g −1 for melting and 199.2 J g −1 for freezing, exhibiting a large thermal storage capacity. The effect of EG on thermal performance was investigated and results suggested that the thermal conductivity of the composite with 15 wt.% EG (3.56 W m −1 K −1 ) is 14.4 times than that of pure C20 (0.25 W m −1 K −1 ), and the heating and cooling curves confirmed the EG has substantially improved the thermal transfer rate of samples. Furthermore, the electro-to-heat conversion measurement was carried out under small voltage (1.9–2.1 V), and the C20/EG 15 exhibits high electro-to-heat storage efficiency (65.7%) under the voltage of 2.1 V. In all, the composite C20/EG 15 is a potential candidate not only for electro-to-heat conversion but also for other thermal storage applications due to large latent heat capacity and high thermal conductivity.

Study of using enhanced heat-transfer flexible phase change material film in thermal management of compact electronic device

Strict internal space limit of compact electronics makes it hard to use cooling tubes for the forced convection or phase change materials (PCMs) block to thermal control. In this paper, two types of high thermal conductive flexible phase change material (FPCM) with latent heat of 160.2 J/g and 153.1 J/g were developed into film morphology with the thickness of 0.4 mm, and were used to manage heat dissipation of the compact electronics. The experimental results show that temperature of the analog chip controlled by FPCM film is indeed lowered with a maximum drop of 14.3 ℃. The promotion of FPCM’s thermal conductivity increases the effective thermal control time but still is insufficient to the heat dissipation along the inplane direction inside electronics. Therefore, the graphene film with plane thermal conductivity of 1500 W/m·K is employed to fabricate the composite heat-diffusion FPCM film to enhance transverse heat transfer. The result shows the latent heat capacity utilization rate of the FPCM film and heat diffusion area along the inplane direction are significantly increased with the extension of thermal control time by 32.4% at 3.2 W. These results are expected to provide a strong basis for the implementation and optimization of phase change thermal management technique in compact electronic device.

Climate response of a BiPV façade system enhanced with latent PCM-based thermal energy storage

Building-integrated photovoltaic (BiPV) systems applied within a building envelope exhibit limited efficiency and durability due to their insufficient cooling capabilities. Thus, the need to decrease their operating temperature and increase overall electricity production poses relevant research challenges. The application of a phase change material (PCM) to the rear side of a PV module can provide both a decrease in PV panel temperature and thermal energy storage as well. The objective of the presented study is to identify the climate response of latent thermal energy storage (TES) integrated into a ventilated photovoltaic (PV) façade system. The main attention is focused on the thermophysical properties of the employed PCM in terms of the utilization of its overall latent heat capacity through the diurnal cycle of a day in the context of the mutual interaction between incident solar radiation and outside air temperature. A comparative investigation was conducted using experimental measurements taken during outdoor climate tests with the aim of determining the real performance of the façade system. The experimental results revealed that the effect on PV panel operating temperature of installing the selected PCM on the rear side of the panels is significant mainly at midday when high solar radiation is present.