Impact of Using Phase Change Materials with Different Wall Orientations in a Classroom Building Under a Warm Temperate Climate

In this paper, the effect of the integration of Phase Change Material panels for summer thermal comfort and cooling demand of a classroom under warm temperate climate was numerically assessed. The PCM panels are fixed on the internal faces of the walls (east, west and south) and roof. They are modeled using TRNSYS software, specifically Type 339. A comparison before and after using PCM on the roof and the east, west and south walls as well as on the combination wall-roof was undertaken. The results showed that the cooling demand was reduced from 6.8 kWh/m2/year to 5.5 kWh/m2/year with the combined roof-wall configuration of PCM compared to the initial case. Indoor temperature was reduced by 1.13 ℃ for the roof-wall configuration. Moreover, with regard to the thermal comfort standard that requires an indoor temperature between 21 ℃ and 27 ℃, this combination reduced the discomfort hours by 25% comparing to the base case.