Abstract
Space cooling accounted for 16% of electricity utilization in buildings in 2020 with a consumption of 1885 TWh; in contrast, within hot-weather regions it reaches to more than 60%. Tracking the growing energy demands, it is evident that compared with 1990, the electricity utilization in the cooling sector has inflated to over threefolds. The rapid electricity demand for cooling can be significantly curbed by lowering the energy exchange in the buildings. With this motive, the present research focuses on building envelopes, and electricity demand in declined hot months. By loading phase change material (PCM) and approving the enthalpy-porosity technique, and the building transient energy analyses were performed. The thermostat was adjusted to accomplish the temperature schedule at 12–20 °C in winter while 24–30 °C in summer schedule depending on occupancy activity. By incorporating PCM 25 (melting transition of 24–26 °C) into building reduced electricity utilization in summer by 13.7% while in winter, it was reduced by 32.7%. The interior temperature inspection revealed that during hot days, this material was comparatively impractical. To improve the PCM effects on electricity utilization, PCM 29 (phase change transition of 28–30 °C) with the same thermophysical properties but different melting temperatures were substituted. The obtained results showed that electricity demand in summer and winter dropped by 8.7 and 45.7%, respectively. To boost PCM practicality, both PCMs were added to the building, and it was observed that PCM29 gained more efficiency on electricity consumption. The research has broad implications in energy resources assessment, utilization, and development.
•Using PCM in building to reduce space cooling electricity demand.•Electricity utilization in summer dropped by 13.7% owing to using PCM 25 (melting transition of 24–26 °C).•PCM 29 (phase change transition of 28–30 °C) dropped electricity demand in summer by 8.7%.