Thermal performance of phase change materials in energy storage

Abstract

Solar energy technologies have been in continuous development to cope with the increasing demand. Since the solar energy supply is variable in daytime and zero at night, a considerable amount of solar energy should be stored during the daytime to meet the demands at night. In any solar energy system, a storage unit is required because of the non-constant nature of solar energy; at certain times, only a very small amount of radiation or no radiation is received. This introduces the idea of using Phase Change Materials (PCM’s) which absorb heat, store it and release it for a later use. The Aim of this project is to study the effect of adding PCM’s to a solar water heating system and compare it with the conventional one, since PCM’s can store latent heat when there is no supply (solar radiation) which is in our case at night when the supply is less than the demand. This project can be an efficient alternative to commonly used systems such as boilers and electrical heating systems with reasonable initial cost and environmentally friendly, since it only includes adding PCM’s to any existing solar water heating system without direct contact with the domestic hot water usage. This can be very helpful with the continuous increase of fuel and electricity prices.