Trombe Walls for Lightweight Buildings in Temperate and Hot Climates. Exploring the Use of Phase-change Materials for Performances Improvement☆

Abstract This paper is summarizing the results of a research carried out for assessing thermal performances of Trombe walls integrated in lightweight constructions. Phase-change materials, substituting heavy thermal storage mass, have been used in order to improve the energy performance of the system. For evaluating the device sensibility to external environmental conditions, five Australian cities (representative of five different climatic zones) have been considered. Furthermore, variations of PCM position in the external envelope and of melting point temperatures have been taken in account in order to define the most suitable technology for each climatic area.