Building Envelope with Phase Change Materials

Based on recent investigations on building envelope with phase change materials from all over the world, we select the key scientific and technical issues including the thermal design methods, climatic and seasonal suitability and application, etc. The chapter mainly contains four parts: how to design building envelope with phase change materials, how to deal with issues on climatic and seasonal suitability of the technology, how to improve thermal performance of phase change materials applied in building envelope, and what is the application mode. The thermal design principle and a simple calculation method of building envelope with phase change materials are proposed by experiments. Thermal comfort pertaining to ASHRAE Standard 55 under different conditions is investigated, and an approach to estimate favorable climatic characteristics for building envelope with phase change materials is established. To exert the phase change materials applied in building envelope effectively, thermal transfer enhancement methods and application are also provided in the chapter. The chapter can be helpful for the development of building energy efficiency and the goal of zero and net zero energy.