Investigations on thermal environment in residential buildings with PCM embedded in external wall

Abstract It is noticed that the building envelope thermal load affects the indoor thermal environment and operation of the air conditioning system due to the heat transfer through the envelope. The variation of indoor thermal environment will directly affect the performance of the air conditioning system. To weaken even eliminate the effects of envelope thermal load, PCM was integrated in the building envelope. The effects of PCM on variation of return air temperature in a bedroom in a coastal city was studied and compared with the traditional building envelope. The characteristics of PCM, like the melting temperature and amount of PCM were also investigated.