The effect of phase change material application in double skin Façade on energy saving of residential buildings considering different climates: a case study

ABSTRACT

The amount of energy expenditure in buildings is 30–40% of the total energy consumption in the world and this share will increase to 50% by 2050. Therefore, reducing energy consumption is a necessity and one of the ways to reduce energy expenditure in buildings is to use passive methods.

The use of DSF is expanding as a new approach for building facades due to its ability to prevent excessive heat by absorbing solar radiation. For this purpose, the energy performance of PCM and DSF was studied in three climates of Tehran, Tabriz, and Kish Island, to reveal their energy saving potential.

Based on the results of this article, the use of PCM in different layers of DFS can result in a considerable energy saving in Iran residential sector.

PCM is integrated both in the external wall and in the partition wall of the DoubleSkin Façade under three different climates. DesignBuilder is used for the thermal analysis of the building. The effects of melting temperature, location of PCM layer in the wall have been investigated. The results showed that we will witness the highest total energy savings percentage in the cold semi-arid climate because of using Infinite RPCM23 in October, amounting to 91.6%. In addition, by using Infinite RPCM25 in warm semi-arid climates in the highest percentage of heating load savings is 99.9% in December and January, and the highest percentage of cooling load savings in cold semi-arid climates is 67.5% by using InfiniteRPCM23 in September.

KEYWORDS:

• Double-Skin Façade (DSF)
• Phase Change Material (PCM)
• energy performance
• energy saving
• energy consumption

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Notes on contributors

Mahdi Pouran

Mahdi Pouran, Phd candidate, Dept. Energy Systems Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Farivar Fazelpour

Farivar Fazelpour, Associated Prof., Dept. Energy Systems Engineering, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.

G. B. Gharehpetian

G. B. Gharehpetian, Professor., Dept. Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

Alireza Saraei

Alireza Saraei, Assistant Prof., Dept. Energy Systems Engineering, Islamic Azad University, South Tehran Branch, Tehran, Iran.