TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of phase change materials for improving thermal comfort in a super-insulated residential building
AU - Sage-Lauck, J. S.
AU - Sailor, D. J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Ella Wong, Randy Hayslip, Rob Hawthorne, Bart Berquist, Santiago Rodriguez, Christophe Parroco, Daeho Kang, Pamela Wallace, Stephanie Jacobsen, Steve Gross and Matt Groves for their assistance with this project. We would also like to thank Phase Change Energy Solutions for providing technical data and support. This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy under award DE-EE0003870 .
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - The demand for high performance buildings is on the rise. As a result, several new building standards have emerged including the Passive House Standard, a rigorous energy-use standard based on a super-insulated and very tightly sealed building envelope. A common challenge with passive house designs is that they tend to overheat. This study explores the use of phase change materials (PCMs), which store heat as they melt and release heat as the solidify, to reduce the number of overheated hours and improve thermal comfort for a case study passive house duplex located in Portland, Oregon, USA. In this study, a newly constructed passive house duplex was thoroughly instrumented to monitor indoor environmental quality metrics and building energy use. One unit of the duplex was outfitted with 130 kg of PCM while the other unit served as a control. The performance of the PCM was evaluated through analysis of observed data and through additional computer simulation using an EnergyPlus whole-building energy simulation model validated with observed data. The study found that installation of the PCM had a positive effect on thermal comfort, reducing the estimated annual overheated hours from about 400 to 200.
AB - The demand for high performance buildings is on the rise. As a result, several new building standards have emerged including the Passive House Standard, a rigorous energy-use standard based on a super-insulated and very tightly sealed building envelope. A common challenge with passive house designs is that they tend to overheat. This study explores the use of phase change materials (PCMs), which store heat as they melt and release heat as the solidify, to reduce the number of overheated hours and improve thermal comfort for a case study passive house duplex located in Portland, Oregon, USA. In this study, a newly constructed passive house duplex was thoroughly instrumented to monitor indoor environmental quality metrics and building energy use. One unit of the duplex was outfitted with 130 kg of PCM while the other unit served as a control. The performance of the PCM was evaluated through analysis of observed data and through additional computer simulation using an EnergyPlus whole-building energy simulation model validated with observed data. The study found that installation of the PCM had a positive effect on thermal comfort, reducing the estimated annual overheated hours from about 400 to 200.
KW - Building energy modeling
KW - Passive house
KW - Phase change materials
KW - Thermal comfort
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U2 - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.04.028
DO - 10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.04.028
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84901299695
SN - 0378-7788
VL - 79
SP - 32
EP - 40
JO - Energy and Buildings
JF - Energy and Buildings
ER -