Application Of Phase Change Materials In Buildings

Phase change material is considered one of the most innovative way used in the engineering world to reduce the use of energy. PCM uses the renewable resource (solar energy) to produce and store the thermal energy for different application like solar water heater, thermal energy storage in concrete, solar cooker etc. Due to the increasing population the consumption of the energy increases globally. Energy consumption can be reduced to certain limit by storing excess energy using suitable medium, which will be achieved by the usage of PCM in compact form. In this paper a review is made on the application of different PCM and the methods to improve their heat storage capacity. Usage of storage energy is limited to certain seasons, PCM help us to store the energy that is made during the time when the supply of the solar energy is surplus. The property of the PCM that makes it unique from the other storage materials is its ability for storing the latent heat during phase transition at a constant temperature.