Phase change material coating on autoclaved aerated lightweight concrete for cooling load reduction

Abstract

This work is focused on enhancing the thermal effectiveness of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) by the application of phase change material (PCM) as a coating. The dynamics of heat transfer and the cooling load of air conditioning system in the two tested houses with different wall materials (AAC and AAC with PCM coating) were investigated. The work demonstrated that by coating phase change material onto the exterior surface of the building materials a significant increase in the thermal effectiveness of the building materials was achieved and determined by comparing the lower interior surface temperature, heat flux evolution and room temperature. The increase in thermal effectiveness was applied to the AAC. It was demonstrated that the cooling load and power consumption of air conditioning system in buildings using the wall-PCM coating combination can be reduced variously by about 25 %.