Measurement of PCM-concrete composites thermal properties for energy conservation in building material

Abstract

Indonesia is one of the countries that has a tropical climate. With the weather and extreme temperatures occurring, almost all buildings use air conditioner to get the thermal comfort. Phase Change Material (PCM), a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) with latent heat working principle, can be an alternative in reducing energy consumption due to the use of air conditioner in the building. The purpose of this research is to determine the characteristics of thermal properties in building materials integrated with PCM material, namely, beeswax. The study is done by conducting thermal properties testing to determine the effect of adding a beeswax to the building material to the resulting temperature and compared to the building material without the addition of beeswax. Variations of this research is the temperature of heater as heat source (35, 40, 45 °C). The results of the study showed that the addition of beeswax resulted in a lower inner wall temperature compared to those not added by beeswax. The thermal conductivity of beeswax-concrete composite obtained from the test result are 0.0211-0.0212 W/m °C and the composite diffusivity at 2.89x10-6 m2/s. This proves that by adding PCM to the building material, the PCM will absorb the heat and the heat that enter the room will be reduced.