The Effect of Wall-Integrated Phase Change Material Panels on the Indoor Air and Wall Temperature - Hot box Experiments

Phase change materials (PCMs) have opened a new door towards the renewable energy future due to their effective thermal energy storage capabilities. Several products have recently found their way to the market, using various types of PCMs. This paper focuses on one particular wall-board product, integrated in a well-insulated wall constructed of an interior gypsum board, PCM layer, vapor barrier, mineral wool, and a wind barrier. The wall is tested with and without the PCM layer in order to get comparative results. Experiments are conducted in a traditional guarded hot box. The hot box is composed of two full-scale test chambers, where the tested wall is located between those two chambers. There are two heaters inside the metering box: heater 1 functions as a thermostat which is used to maintain a constant air temperature (of about 20 oC) in the metering box, while heater 2 is a normal electrical heater that provides a constant heating power when turned on. The cold chamber has a fixed temperature equal to –20 oC. The experiments are arranged in a comparative way, i.e. comparing walls with and without a PCM layer. Temperature, heat flux, air velocity, and electrical power are recorded during testing. By applying well-distributed thermocouples, the influences of the PCM layer on the interior temperatures can be shown. Furthermore, with attached heat flux meters, the energy storage effect and convective heat flows can be determined. Finally, with the electrical power meter, the energy saving effect can also be calculated. In this paper, initial experimental results are presented, showing the indoor air and surface wall temperatures. The experiments show that inclusion of the PCM layer in the wall reduces the interior air and wall temperatures by a maximum of about 2 oC compared to a wall without PCM. The results also show that increasing the air velocity over the interior surface during the heating period lowers the maximum air and surface temperatures by the end of the heating period.