Scholarly record

PASSIVE THERMAL ADJUSTMENT OF OFFICE BUILDINGS THROUGH THE USE OF PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS

Gheorghe Badea

Abstract

This paper aims to provide an overview of the technologies of passive heating and cooling by using phase change materials, integrated in the interior elements of constructions, to ensure the energy efficiency and the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from buildings, approaching in at the same time the new and existing buildings. Considering that ensuring the internal thermal comfort of the occupants requires high energy consumption, the use of phase change materials by creating a passive energy storage system will reduce the energy consumption, by creating a thermal management system, TES-PCM, which will allow the efficient storage of energy needed to operate under optimal conditions. Most of the new or existing office buildings have active heating and cooling systems, systems which are functional, but require high energy consumption to ensure optimum indoor temperature. However the fluctuations (or time delays) in the interior space are related to the energy storage capacity of the building envelope or to the interior elements of the building. Within a building, the energy consumption needed to ensure the heating and cooling requirements represents the highest value of the total energy demand. The reduction of the heat transfer, or the reduction of the losses between the internal and the external environment, can be realized directly by increasing the thickness of the insulation or reducing the thermal conductivity of the insulating material. The variation in time of the interior temperature is regulated by increasing the thermal mass of the building by sensitive or latent heating and cooling techniques. The use of phase change materials offers the possibility of energy dependence reduction by using latent thermal storage, or creating a TES-PCM system, to increase the internal thermal inertia without significantly increasing the weight of the building and affecting its structure.

Publication Impact Profile

• Captures
• Mendeley - Readers: 5

PLUMX see details

DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019v/6.3/s09.041

Publication details

Back to publication list