Energy Rehabilitation of Buildings through Phase Change Materials and Ceramic Ventilated Facades

Abstract

In recent years, phase change materials (PCMs) have gained major relevance for their ability to take advantage of indoor/outdoor air temperature differences to store energy. This characteristic of PCMs allows to transfer stored energy to periods of energy demand, thus achieving optimum conditions of comfort and notable energy savings. The present study compared the energy consumption of a traditional façade and a ventilated façade to which large format ceramic tiles covered with PCMs were applied. For this purpose, an office building in the city of Alicante was used as a case study. Salt hydrate PCMs were attached to the slabs, and air was allowed to circulate or not circulate through night and day dampers as passive conditioning, accumulating energy. The energy performance of the building was simulated using the Lider-Calener (HULC) energy certification tool in both scenarios. The building’s energy demand was calculated in its current state and with the ventilated façade with ceramic tiles and PCMs. An energy saving of 5% was obtained.