Impact of a passive retrofit shading system on educational building to improve thermal comfort and energy consumption

Abstract To improve the energy performance of existing buildings, retrofits may improve the energy efficiency or decrease energy demand. Many studies have been conducted on passive retrofit systems using phase change materials (PCMs). In this study, the objective is to analyze the energy performance and thermal comfort of an educational building with a shading system in South Korea. When PCMs were applied to the shading system, the cooling energy consumption decreased by 44%, and the number of hours of thermal comfort improved by 34%. The melting temperature of the PCM did not play a significant role in reducing the building energy consumption when the PCM was applied to the shading system. In the economic aspect, although the PCM shading application requires more additional investment, the simple payback period (SPP) of the PCM shading application is lower than the building without PCM. Therefore, the PCM shading application to A Hall is a successful retrofit that has more energy efficiency and thermal comfort, and has a lower SPP. However, the increase in heating energy consumption due to the shading application in winter could not be overcome. This implies that further research on the shading system in cold climates are required.