Evaluation and reduction of heat transfer in buildings for energy storage using PCM - cooling and heating load diagram smoothing method

• Develop a model to achieve the lowest heat transfer from the walls during peak consumption times. • Develop a model to achieve highest efficiency in the building. • Using PCM on the south, north, west, and east walls reduce the average maximum room temperature by 1.82, 1.79, 1.78, and 1.45 degrees Celsius. Buildings account for a significant share of total energy consumption. A large part of this energy is used to control the temperature of the building. One of the new solutions to reduce energy consumption in buildings is to increase the thermal inertia of the building and store energy using smart materials in building components. Among these materials is a phase change material that can stabilize the internal temperature of the building. In the present study, a room in the Tehran climate in the summer season was modeled using the enthalpy model using MATLAB software. The equations are solved using the implicit finite difference method. The results show that the presence of a phase change material has a good effect on reducing the size of room air temperature fluctuations and improves thermal comfort conditions by reducing the peak room air temperature by about 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius. The results also show that the southern, northern, western, and eastern walls have the best performance, respectively. Finally, a model has been developed that, by examining the effect of parameters such as melting temperature, thickness, and location of the phase change material, with respect to weather conditions and building geometry, can be used to decide which type of phase change material, with what thickness, and in which wall to use in order to achieve the greatest reduction in heat transfer from the walls and, consequently, the greatest reduction in the capacity required for the cooling load.