Thermal storage systems assessment for energy sustainability in housing units

Abstract

In order to achieve greater enhancements in energy sustainability for housing, the function and efficiency of two different passive cooling systems were studied: encapsulated water in recycled bottles of Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polystyrene plates, in comparison with standard concrete slab systems, which are customarily used in housing. Experiments were placed over a tile surface, in which temperature changes were monitored for a period of 20 days from 08:00 to 20:00. The efficiency of passive thermal storage systems was endorsed through statistical analysis using the "SPSS" software. This resulted in a 17% energy saving, thus promoting energy sustainability in housing units, which reduces the use of electrical appliances required to stabilize conditions to achieve optimum thermal comfort for the human body inside a house, therefore, reducing electrical power consumption, CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and generating savings. Due to the complexity of a system with temperature changes, a fractal analysis was performed for each experimental system, using the "Benoit" software (V.1.3 with self-compatible tools of rescaled range (R/S) and a wavelets method), showing that the thermal fluctuations on the tiles with the thermal storage system adapt to the rescaled range analysis and the regular tiles adapt to the wavelets method.