Thermal performance of a typical residential Cyprus building with phase change materials

Abstract

This work investigates the thermal performance of a typical building in Cyprus, and the effect of application of a particular passive technology (phase change material or PCM) with the aim of reducing indoor air temperatures and energy supplied for the cooling season. Phase change materials for passive building applications are an emerging technology and have not been tested for the buildings of Cyprus, either by computer simulation or practical application. In this paper, the effect of incorporating a phase change material wallboard with a phase change temperature of 26℃ was investigated by simulation in Energy Plus. Four scenarios were considered for the same building geometry, each having different constructions. Two construction styles were used: perforated clay brick walls with reinforced concrete slabs and cellular concrete block walls with cellular concrete slabs. Each construction style was used in two different thicknesses. Simulations were carried out for the city of Larnaca for the cooling season only (May–October). The results showed that with this particular phase change material product, indoor air temperatures and cooling energies supplied to the building could be reduced by up to 1.7℃ and 14.0%. Practical application: Sensible heat storage in building fabric is usual practice in Cyprus, as traditional building materials are thermally heavy. This paper will have practical impact as it introduces application of PCMs, a new method for storing heat in the buildings of Cyprus in much lighter way, where the weight is significant constraint due to earthquake load.

Effectiveness of Using Phase Change Materials on Reducing Summer Overheating Issues in UK Residential Buildings with Identification of Influential Factors

“…Similar results were found in Portugal where a study has demonstrated that using PCM could enhance the thermal inertia of the house and so reduce the amplitude of the indoor temperature variation and increase the comfort level [16]. In Cyprus, the addition of a 0.15 m thick layer of PCM helped decrease the summer mean indoor temperature of 1.7˝C [17]. For Seong et al [18] different kinds of PCMs were especially added to lightweight buildings and used with night ventilation to decrease the indoor air temperature of up to 0.85˝C during the summer time.…”

A literature review of night ventilation strategies in buildings

“…Phase change materials have been successfully used for reducing the cooling load of office buildings utilizing naturally or fan-assisted night ventilation [92][93][94]. Studies in night ventilation have been carried out in different climate zones worldwide with different applications of PCMs.…”

Passive cooling of buildings with phase change materials using whole-building energy simulation tools: A review

“…Also, some authors have investigated the effect of fan-assisted night ventilation with high ratios of air exchange per hour (ach) which was highly effective to discharge the PCM. Studies have found that the integration of natural night ventilation strategies [69,82] or fan-assisted night ventilation [103] can effectively increase the cooling performance of the PCM-enhanced buildings in climates with cool nighttime outdoor temperature. For example the effectiveness of night ventilation to enhance the performance of PCM passive system was investigated by Evola et al [70].…”