Application of phase change materials, thermal insulation, and external shading for thermal comfort improvement and cooling energy demand reduction in an office building under different coastal tropical climates

Solar Energy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 207 ◽  
pp. 458-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Modeste Kameni Nematchoua ◽  
Jean Christophe Vanona Noelson ◽  
Ismaïl Saadi ◽  
Herves Kenfack ◽  
Aro-Zo F.R. Andrianaharinjaka ◽  
...  
Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3661 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabrizio Ascione ◽  
Nicola Bianco ◽  
Rosa Francesca De Masi ◽  
Margherita Mastellone ◽  
Giuseppe Peter Vanoli

The present work concerns the energy retrofit of a public educational building at the University of Molise, located in Termoli, South Italy. The study provides a comparison of the results obtained by different dynamic simulations of passive strategies to improve thermal comfort and energy behavior of the building during the summer regime. Firstly, the building model was calibrated against historical consumption data. Then, a subsequent step involves the technical-economic analysis, by means of building performance simulations, of energy upgrading scenarios, specifically, cool roof and green roof technologies for the horizontal opaque envelope and thermal insulation, vented façade, and phase change materials’ applications for the vertical opaque envelope. Improving the indoor thermal comfort and reducing the thermal energy demand during summertime through innovative solutions will be the primary objective of the present study. The energy efficiency measures are compared from the energy, emissions, costs, and indoor comfort points of view. Phase Change Materials applied to the inner side of the external walls are analyzed in depth and, by varying their melting temperature, optimization of design is performed too. This innovative material, with a melting temperature of 23 °C and a freezing temperature of 21 °C, determines the reduction of summer energy consumption of 11.7% and the increase of summer indoor comfort of 215 h. Even if consolidated, other solutions, like the cool roof, green roof, thermal insulation, and vented façade induce improvements in terms of summer energy saving, and the percentage difference compared to the basic building is less than 2%. For this case study, a Mediterranean building, with construction characteristics typical of the 1990s, traditional passive technologies are not very efficient in improving the energy performance, so the investigation focused on the adoption of innovative solutions such as PCMs, for reducing summer energy demand and improving indoor thermal comfort.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1257
Author(s):  
Luis Godoy-Vaca ◽  
E. Catalina Vallejo-Coral ◽  
Javier Martínez-Gómez ◽  
Marco Orozco ◽  
Geovanna Villacreses

This work aims to estimate the expected hours of Predicted Medium Vote (PMV) thermal comfort in Ecuadorian social housing houses applying energy simulations with Phase Change Materials (PCMs) for very hot-humid climates. First, a novel methodology for characterizing three different types of social housing is presented based on a space-time analysis of the electricity consumption in a residential complex. Next, the increase in energy demand under climate influences is analyzed. Moreover, with the goal of enlarging the time of thermal comfort inside the houses, the most suitable PCM for them is determined. This paper includes both simulations and comparisons of thermal behavior by means of the PMV methodology of four types of PCMs selected. From the performed energy simulations, the results show that changing the deck and using RT25-RT30 in walls, it is possible to increase the duration of thermal comfort in at least one of the three analyzed houses. The applied PCM showed 46% of comfortable hours and a reduction of 937 h in which the thermal sensation varies from “very hot” to “hot”. Additionally, the usage time of air conditioning decreases, assuring the thermal comfort for the inhabitants during a higher number of hours per day.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Váz Sá ◽  
R. M. S. F. Almeida ◽  
H. Sousa ◽  
J. M. P. Q. Delgado

Building components with incorporated phase change materials (PCMs) meant to increase heat storage capacity and enable stabilization of interior buildings surface temperatures, whereby influencing the thermal comfort sensation and the stabilization of the interior ambient temperatures. The potential of advanced simulation tools to evaluate and optimize the usage of PCM in the control of indoor temperature, allowing for an improvement in the comfort conditions and/or in the cooling energy demand, was explored. This paper presents a numerical and sensitivity analysis of the enthalpy and melting temperature effect on the inside building comfort sensation potential of the plastering PCM.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 2438
Author(s):  
Modeste Kameni Nematchoua ◽  
Jean Christophe Vanona ◽  
José A. Orosa

Researchers have used passive strategies, such as the implementation of thermal insulation and the use of phase change materials (PCM), in several studies, but some problems have not yet been solved. It is the case of showing the real effect of external shading combined with thermal insulation and phase change materials to improve the thermal performance and energy efficiency of office buildings in tropical coastal areas. Another pending problem to be solved is to define the impact produced by passive strategies on the performance of workers in office buildings in coastal zones. It is with a view to answering all these questions that this study was envisaged with the main objective of evaluating, analyzing, comparing, and discussing the effect of thermal insulation and phase change materials on thermal comfort and energy demand in coastal areas of hot and humid tropical climates located in the island of Madagascar. In this sense, hourly climate data for the past 30 years have served as the basis for assessing environmental conditions of future climate. It was found that the PCMs have a more significant effect on the coastal zone of hot climates than humid tropical climates. The results of the statistical analyses showed that the application of passive strategies stabilizes indoor air temperatures to between 23 °C and 28 °C in the offices, which is the recommended comfort range in these regions. In the coastal regions of Madagascar, up to 30% of cooling energy is expected to be reduced by combining the introduction of thermal insulation and PCM materials.


Proceedings ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 41
Author(s):  
Hanae El Fakiri ◽  
Lahoucine Ouhsaine ◽  
Abdelmajid El Bouardi

The thermal dynamic behavior of buildings represents an important aspect of the energy efficiency and thermal comfort of the indoor environment. For this, phase change material (PCM) wallboards integrated into building envelopes play an important role in stabilizing the temperature of the human comfort condition. This article provides an assessment of the thermal behavior of a “bi-zone” building cell, which was built based on high-energy performance (HEP) standards and heated by a solar water heater system through a hydronic circuit. The current study is based on studying the dynamic thermal behavior, with and without implantation of PCMs on envelope structure, using a simplified modeling approach. The evolution of the average air temperature was first evaluated as a major indicator of thermal comfort. Then, an evaluation of the thermal behavior’s dynamic profile was carried out in this study, which allowed for the determination of the PCM rate anticipation in the thermal comfort of the building cell.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (8) ◽  
pp. 2154
Author(s):  
Angelo Maiorino ◽  
Adrián Mota-Babiloni ◽  
Manuel Gesù Del Duca ◽  
Ciro Aprea

Phase Change Materials (PCMs) incorporated in refrigerators can be used to shift their energy consumption from peak periods, when the electric network energy demand is the highest, to off-peak periods. While PCMs can flatten the energy demand curve, they can achieve economic savings if Time-of-Use (TOU) electricity tariffs are applied. However, the hourly carbon emission factor is not commonly linked to the hourly tariff, and the final CO2 emitted due to the operations of the refrigerator would not be fully optimized. In this work, a method based on the Simulated Annealing optimization technique was proposed to identify the optimal working schedule of a cabinet refrigerator incorporating a PCM to reduce its indirect carbon emissions. Data from countries with different representative carbon intensity profiles were used. The normalized standard deviation and normalized range are the best statistical indexes to predict carbon emission reduction in the proposed solution. These parameters proved that countries with a higher hourly carbon intensity variation (Uruguay, France, Denmark, and Germany) benefit from the application of the algorithm. Cost and carbon emission reduction cannot be maximized simultaneously, and a trade-off is required.


2018 ◽  
Vol 281 ◽  
pp. 131-136
Author(s):  
Shi Chao Zhang ◽  
Wei Wu ◽  
Yu Feng Chen ◽  
Liu Shi Tao ◽  
Kai Fang ◽  
...  

With the increase of the speed of vehicle, the thermal protection system of its powerplant requires higher insulation materials. Phase change materials can absorb large amounts of heat in short time. So the introduction of phase change materials in thermal insulation materials can achieve efficient insulation in a limited space for a short time. In this paper, a new phase change thermal insulation material was prepared by pressure molding with microporous calcium silicate as matrix and Li2CO3 as phase change material. The morphology stability, exudation and heat insulation of the materials were tested. The results show that the porous structure of microporous calcium silicate has a good encapsulation when the phase transition of Li2CO3 is changed into liquid. And the material has no leakage during use. The thermal performance test also shows that the insulation performance of the material has obvious advantages in the short term application.


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