Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

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Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/seta

Energy-saving of building envelope using passive PCM technique: A case

study of Kuwait City climate conditions
Abdullah A.A.A. Al-Rashed *, Abdulwahab A. Alnaqi, Jalal Alsarraf
Department of Automotive and Marine Engineering Technology, College of Technological Studies, The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Kuwait

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: In the Kuwaiti climate region, the residential sector accounts for 64% of electricity consumption. Due to the hot
PCM climate for this region, the share of cooling power usage to meet the ventilation requirements in residential
CO2 saving buildings is significant. One of the effective methods to reduce power usage is to reduce heat gain. In this nu­
Energy saving
merical study, taking into account the Kuwait City climate region, a PCM layer with a thickness of 20 mm was
Heat gain
Building
added to the vertical walls as well as the roof to examine the heat exchange reduction. In the warmeth month
(July) by adding PCM of RT-42 to the roof, the heat gain reduced by 15.37%, while this figure for vertical walls
was approximately 13.78% which implies that the geographical direction has not considerable effects on PCM
usefulness. To investigate the effects of melting temperature on heat gain, three PCMs of RT-31 (phase change
temperature of 27–33 ◦ C), RT-35 (29–36 ◦ C and RT-42 (38–43 ◦ C) were examined. Annual calculations showed
that RT-31 effectiveness was better than other PCMs so that loading RT-31 into vertical walls + roof resulted in
energy saving as well as CO2 saving by 481mkWh
2 .year and 198.65m2 .year , respectively.
CO2 kg

façade wall temperature fluctuations was investigated. The authors

Introduction found that PCM damped temperature fluctuations. Because, during the
phase change, the PCM does not allow the temperature to change.
Energy is the most vital need in several sectors such as trans­ Textile-reinforced concrete thermal behavior equipped with PCM
portation, industry and buildings [1]. These sections need numerous was examined by Bahrar et al. [16]. They filled the inside of the rein­
energy to perform their tasks [2–4] so that the energy usage share of the forced concrete with microencapsulated PCM and then measured the
former sector is 50%, the latter one 25% and the last is 20% [5]. The external surface temperature and found that the temperature had
energy in buildings consumes for cooling, heating, lighting, ventilation, dropped by 1.7 ◦ C due to the PCM presence. Reducing the response time
etc. The energy usage for meeting heating, ventilation, and air condi­ to temperature variations was another effects of PCM, as the peak load
tioning (HVAC) is significant. To reduce HVAC power usage, researchers time was delayed by two hours.
used various techniques [6,7]. Moreover, HVAC power usage depends In a similar study, Su et al. [17] incorporated microencapsulated
on the amount of heat exchange between the building and the ambient, PCM layers with different melting temperature (Tm) into drywall to
in which less heat exchange led to lower HVAC energy usage. More examine the thermal behavior. They installed n-octadecane (Tm =
building materials thickness and less thermal conductivity led to lower 23.55 ◦ C) close to the exterior while n-eicosane (Tm = 35 ◦ C) was
heat exchange. Another way to reduce heat exchange is to store energy. installed close to the interior. The total thickness of both PCMs was
If a part of the energy exchange from the outside space to the interior varied within the range of 1–5 mm and it was found that the more
one is stored inside the wall, it will reduce the rate of heat exchange to thickness, the more usefulness of adding PCM. Under the best scenario,
the room and consequently decrease the room cooling load. Phase the interior temperature was diminished by 6.7 ◦ C.
change materials (PCMs) are the best candidate because they are known In a laboratory study, the effects of adding PCM in conventional brick
in many studies as thermal energy storage [8,9]. If a layer of PCM is and alveolar on the thermal behavior were studied by Castell et al. [18].
installed in the building envelopes, taking into account the thermal They built four brick cubicles and installed an air conditioning system to
storage potential of PCMs, the heat exchange would be reduced [10–14]. keep the indoor temperature constant at 24 ◦ C. The first one was built
In a study conducted by Kheradmand et al. [15], the role of PCM on with a commercial brick while the second brick contained commercial

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101254
Received 2 January 2021; Received in revised form 13 April 2021; Accepted 13 April 2021
Available online 3 May 2021
2213-1388/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

Nomenclature T Temperature (K)

Tm Melting Temperature(K)
A Area (m2 ) Tsol− air sol − air temperature(K)
cp J
Specific heat (kg.K) Ts Solidus temperature(K)
( ) Tl Liquidus temperature(K)
g Gravitational acceleration m ( )
s2 m
( ) u Velocity in x − direction s
H Total enthalpy kgJ ( )
m
υ Velocity in y − direction s
( ) ( )
h Sensible enthalpy kgJ w Velocity in z − direction m
s
( )
ΔH Latent enthalpy kgJ Greek symbols
( ) ε Liquid fraction
houter Exterior convective coefficient W μ Dynamic(viscosity
) (Pa.s)
m2 .K
( ) ρ Density mkg3
hinterior Interior convective coefficient W α Absorption coefficient
m2 .K
( ) Abbreviations
W
Iinc Incident solar radiation over the wall m2 PCM Phase Change Material
k W
Thermal conductivity (m.K) LWCB Lightweight concrete block
( ) HVAC Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
L Latent heat kgJ
Qambient Heat exchange between interior spaceandambient(W)

brick + RT27 (PCM). The third one was alveolar brick, while the fourth In an experimental study, heat exchange within a PCM-filled glazed
brick cubicle contained alveolar brick + SP25 (PCM). They reported that was examined [19]. According to the experimental results, the PCM
energy usage for the first brick cubicle was 14.3 year.m
kWh
2 and it was found reduced heat exchange rate through the window. However, the reduc­
that if RT-27 was used the energy usage reduced by 2.1 year.m tion rate did not have a linear correlation with the PCM thickness. They
2 (equivalent
kWh
observed that for the thickness of greater than 16 mm, heat exchange
to 14.68% decrease). For the third and fourth brick cubicles, the energy
was constant.
usage was 15.8 and 13.1 year.m
kWh
2 which indicated that the alveolar brick
The behavior of PCM-containing walls in summer and winter was
was more sensitive to PCM than the commercial one. Also, the calcu­ discussed by Li et al. [20]. In a numerical study, they surveyed three
lations revealed that adding RT-27 to commercial brick reduced the CO2 climatic regions and found that in the best case scenario (warm summer/
emission by 1.2 year.m
kg
2 while for alveolar brick, CO2 emission diminished cold winter), heat exchange reduced by 30.5%.
by 1.6year.m
kWh
2 owing to loading SP25.
In a laboratory study conducted by Jin et al. [21], the effect of the

Fig. 1. Building walls as well as roof equipped with PCM.

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

Table 1
The thermophysical properties of materials used for building construction [24,25].
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]
Material kg J W Phase change Temperature [◦ C] J
Density Specific Heat Thermal Conductivity Phase Change Enthalpy
m3 kg.K m.K kg
Gypsum board 800.9 1090 0.161 – –
LWCB 608.7 840 0.38 – –
Face brick 2002.3 920 1.33 – –
Acoustic tile 480.6 840 0.0604 – –
Heavy-weight concrete 2242 840 1.72 – –
Felt-membrane 1121.3 1670 0.189 – –
Slag-stone 881 1670 1.45 –
RT-42 0.88 (solid) 2000 0.2 38–43 165,000
0.76 (liquid)
RT-35 0.86 (solid) 2000 0.2 29–36 160,000
0.77 (liquid)
RT-31 0.88 (solid) 2000 0.2 27–33 165,000
0.76 (liquid)

Fig. 2. Ambient temperature for Kuwait City (hourly variations in July, 29.37◦ N, 47.97◦ E).

location of PCM inside a wall was studied. They changed the installation room heat gains are investigated. The building walls are equipped with a
location from a location close to the warm source to a location close to 20 mm thickness of PCM layer as shown in Fig. 1. The base wall is made
the cold source. They found that using PCM close to warm source was of gypsum board (19mm), lightweight concrete block (LWCB,102mm),
more beneficial. Their results showed that the presence of micro­ face brick (102mm) while the roof is constructed with acoustic tile
encapsulated PCM can reduce the heat transfer up to 41%. (19mm), heavy-weight concrete(51mm), felt-membrane (10mm) and
In a numerical study conducted by Nariman et al. [22]the authors slag-stone (13mm). The thermophysical properties of each material are
examined the role of PCMs in air conditioning energy usage. Several reported in Table 1. As shown in Fig. 1, the building is heated from the
PCMs with different thermophysical properties were selected and it was environment through the walls facing the main geographical directions
found that PCM with lower thermal conductivity was preferable. They along with the roof. Assume that the interior space temperature remains
showed that PCM inside the walls reduced air conditioning unit power constant (24 ◦ C) and does not change over time. In other words, the
usage up to 33%. HVAC system neutralizes the effect of heat exchange. Solar incident over
Through conducting an experimental study, Chou et al. [23] added the wall is dependent on the wall direction and therefore the solar ra­
PCM to the roof and reported that the heat gain decreased by 52.7% diation incident in various directions must be specified. Using Meteo­
owing to using PCM (Tm = 46.3 ◦ C). norm software, the hourly variations in ambient temperature as well as
Previous studies showed that the use of passive methods led to less solar radiation can be obtained in all geographical directions. The
energy consumption. However, the effects of incorporating PCM into the average monthly ambient temperature variations are shown in Fig. 2a.
building’s walls as well as roof on annual heat transfer variation in hot As can be seen, for July, the temperature in Kuwait City will reach its
and humid climates of Kuwait City has not been studied. Therefore in maximum. Hence the effect of adding PCM in walls + roof on heat gain is
this numerical study, PCM is used in the building walls and roof to examined for July. Moreover, the hourly temperature variations for July
reduce the heat transfer rate. To investigate the effect of melting tem­ are illustrated in Fig. 2b.
perature on heat gain, PCMs of RT-31, RT-35 and RT-42 (with 20 mm Fig. 3 shows the amount of solar radiation on the vertical walls in the
thickness) are examined. Introducing sol–air temperature, the effects of main directions along with the roof. As shown, the amount of solar ra­
incident solar radiation over the vertical walls as well as the roof are diation for the roof is higher than in the other directions.
evaluated. In addition, the annual energy-saving and CO2 emission
avoided are studied. Mathematical formulation

Problem description Analytical solution of the problems in which PCM undergoes phase
change is very complicated. Previous studies [26–33] revealed that PCM
In this study, the effects of PCM installation inside the walls + roof on melting forecasting is approximately possible through numerical

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

Fig. 3. Solar radiation over building walls at different geographical directions (hourly variations in July, 29.37◦ N, 47.97◦ E).

methods.
∂Δ ( ) ∂ ( ) ∂ ( ) ∂ ( )
The heat gains through the wall, as well as the roof, is obtained using ρcp T + ρucp T + ρvcp T + ρwcp T
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂y
Eq. (1): ( ) ( ) ( )
∂ ∂T ∂ ∂T ∂ ∂T ∂(ρΔH) ( ⇀
)
(
Heatgain = hinterior A Tinnersurface − Tinterior
)
(1) = k + k + k − − ρΔHV (2)
∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂z ∂z ∂t

where hinterior = 8.6 mW

2 .K is the interior convective coefficient [34]. With where ΔH stands for latent enthalpy and can be calculated from the
the installation of the air conditioning unit, the interior temperature following equation:
remains constant, while the inner wall temperature always responds to
ΔH = εL (3)
the variations of ambient temperature. The response of the inner wall
temperature is obtained by solving the energy equation: where L is the phase change enthalpy. The parameter of ε is the liquid
fraction which indicates the share of liquid PCM in each cell and
determined from the following equation:

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

( )
∂(ρw) ∂(ρw) ∂(ρw) ∂(ρw) ∂P ∂ ∂w
+u +v +w = − + ρgz + μ
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z ∂z ∂x ∂x
( ) ( ) (7)
∂ ∂w ∂ ∂w
+ μ + μ − Sw
∂y ∂y ∂z ∂z

∂u ∂v ∂w
+ + =0 (8)
∂x ∂y ∂z

where P denotes the pressure (Pa), u, v and w are velocity components,

Su , Sv and Sw are the sink terms:

(1 − ε)2
Su = C u (9)
ε + 0.001
3

Table 2
Study on time step as well as spatial step.
Time step Tinnersurface Spatial step(Δx) (Δy = Δz = Tinnersurface
1mm)
Fig. 4. Sol-air temperature variation with respect to time.
240 s 28.2 ◦ C Δx = 1mm Divergence
solution
120 s 27.9 C ◦
Δx = 0.5mm 29.5 ◦ C
60 s 28.8 ◦ C Δx = 0.25mm 29 ◦ C
30 s 28.8 ◦ C Δx = 0.1mm 28.8 ◦ C
15 s 28.7 ◦ C Δx = 0.05mm 28.7 ◦ C

Fig. 5. Validation of the numerical approach [35]

⎡ ⎤
ε = 0 If T < Ts
⎢ ⎥
⎢ ε = 1 If T > Tl ⎥
⎢
⎢
⎥
⎥ (4)
⎣ T − Ts ⎦
ε= If Ts ≤ T ≤ Tl
Tl − Ts
Fig. 6. Inner wall temperature for “southern wall” and “southern wall +
Note that Ts and Tl are PCM temperatures at totally solid and totally RT-42”
liquid phases, respectively.
Eq. (2) affirms that the temperature depends on velocity. The pres­
ence of velocity in this equation arises from the motion of the liquid
phase and is obtained by simultaneously solving the equations of mo­
mentum and continuity:
( ) ( )
∂(ρu) ∂(ρu) ∂(ρu) ∂(ρu) ∂P ∂ ∂u ∂ ∂u
+u +v +w = − + ρgx + μ + μ
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z ∂x ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y
( )
∂ ∂u
+ μ − Su
∂z ∂z
(5)
( ) ( )
∂(ρv) ∂(ρv) ∂(ρv) ∂(ρv) ∂P ∂ ∂v ∂ ∂v
+u +v +w = − + ρgy + μ + μ
∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z ∂y ∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y
( )
∂ ∂v
+ μ − Sv
∂z ∂z
(6)

Fig. 7. Inner wall heat flux for “southern wall” and “southern wall + RT-42”

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

Fig. 8. Reduction in heat gain owing to inserting RT-42 into the building walls as well as the roof in the various geographical direction.

(1 − ε)2 technique, it is assumed that the ambient temperature is equal to Tsol-air.

Sv = C v (10) For walls and roof, Tsol-air follows the following equation [24]:
ε3 + 0.001
⎡ ⎤
βΔR
(1 − ε)2 forverticalwalls : = 0
Sw = C w (11) αIinc βΔR ⎢ ⎢ houter ⎥
⎥
ε3 + 0.001 Tsol− air = Tambient + − ⎢ ⎥ (13)
houter houter ⎣ βΔR ⎦
Ambient temperature fluctuations affect the temperature of the outer forroof :
houter
= 3.9
wall surface (Touter wall) and can be obtained from the following
equation: where Iinc refers to incident solar radiation over the walls as well as roof
(Fig. 3).
Qambient = houter A(Tsol− − Touterwall ) (12)
The variations of Tsol-air are illustrated in Fig. 4. Focusing on Fig. 3, it
air

where houter = 25 mW is found that for the roof, the amount of incident solar radiation is higher
2 .K is the convective coefficient in which the effects of
than the vertical walls, hence, it is expected that for the roof, Tsol-air will
solar radiation were included [24]. The parameter of Tsol-air is used to
be higher. Fig. 4 confirms that Tsol-air for the roof is higher. The average
consider the solar radiation effects on ambient temperature. In this

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

is reported in Table 2, and it is observed that the spatial step of 0.1 mm

and the time step of 60 s are desirable to achieve an accurate solution.

Results

As mentioned in the previous section, heat transfer between inside

and outside is responsible for heating and cooling the interior. To keep
the temperature in the room constant, the HVAC unit must neutralize
the effects of heat exchange which is an energy-intensive process. If heat
exchange is lowered, HVAC energy usage can be reduced. In this section,
the results of heat exchange from the conventional walls + roof are
compared with the results of PCM-filled ones (i.e., conventional walls +
roof + PCM) in two scenarios. In the first scenario, the effect of PCM on
heat transfer is examined for July (the warmest month). In the second
scenario, by performing calculations for the whole year, the usefulness
of installing PCM inside the wall is evaluated.

First scenario- PCM effectiveness in July

Fig. 9. Total Heat gain for conventional walls + roof and conventional walls + To compare heat exchange, it is adequate to compare the inner
roof + RT-42. surface temperature for both walls (i.e, conventional walls + roof and
PCM-based walls + roof). The lower the surface temperature, the lower
the heat exchange.
Fig. 6 affirms that the temperature of the inner surface of the
southern wall filled with RT-42 is lower than the corresponding value in
the southern wall. It means that the heat exchange can be reduced owing
to using RT-42. However, the heat flux distribution also indicates that
RT-42 reduces the heat exchange as shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 8 shows the amount of heat exchange in various directions. In all
geographical directions, the presence of RT-42 is beneficial. In the north,
south, east and west directions, inserting PCM reduces heat exchange by
13.77, 13.78, 13.75 and 13.85%, respectively. Moreover, the amount of
energy-saving in the north, south, east and west is 5.37, 5.53, 5.99 and
6.06 kWh
m2
, respectively. For the roof equipped with RT-42; the energy-
saving is 9.37 kWh
m2
and therefore the reduction in energy exchange is
15.37% (as shown in Fig. 8). Therefore, it can be concluded that if the
roof is loaded with RT-42, more positive effects on energy-saving would
be observed.
Fig. 9 show the total heat gain in July. In this month, the energy
exchange through the conventional walls + roof is 227.3 kWh m2
, while if
Fig. 10. Liquid fraction variations for different PCMs (southern wall).
RT-42 is loaded into the walls + roof, the energy exchange will be
194.98 kWh which is equivalent to a 14.21% reduction in heat gain.
of Tsol-air for the roof is 47 ◦ C while for the vertical walls in the west, east, m2

north and south directions, Tsol-air is 41.49, 41.35, 38.91 and 38.5 ◦ C, Moreover, as reported in Fig. 9, the energy-saving is 32.32 kWh m2
.
respectively. One of the most important properties of PCMs is their ability to store
thermal energy. To investigate the behavior of PCM in the walls and
Validation and grid/time step study roof, it is desirable to determine the PCM liquid fraction. For compari­
son, three PCMs (RT-35, RT-31 and RT-42) were selected and the liquid
In this study, numerical methods are used to solve the governing fraction was examined. The properties of all three PCMs are reported in
equations. To confirm the solution methodologies, the PCM melting Table 1 and the variations in the liquid fraction are illustrated in Fig. 10.
process inside a cavity is investigated. In [35] the authors examined the This figure shows that all three PCMs undergo the phase change within
lauric acid melting process in a vertical cavity. The cavity was 120mm × the wall, and therefore all PCMs can store thermal energy.
50mmand was filled with lauric acid with melting temperature range of In Fig. 11, the ability of each PCM to reduce heat gain is compared
43.5–48.2 ◦ C. To increase the melting rate, they installed several hori­ and it is found that RT-31 is more preferable.
zontal fins inside the cavity as shown in Fig. 5. Melting rates were Fig. 12 shows the energy-saving for each PCM and affirms that the
recorded with respect to time for three cavities (i.e., no fin, one fin and potential of RT-31 is slightly better than the others. The energy-saving
three fins as shown in Fig. 5). As can be seen in Fig. 5, the numerical owing to inserting RT-31, RT-35 and RT-42 is 34.68, 34.12 and 32.32
approach is well able to model the PCM phase change within the cavity.
kWh
m2
, respectively, which is equivalent to the heat gain reduction of 15.25,
Since the energy and momentum equations are influenced by time/ 15 and 14.21%.
spatial steps, the independency of these equations to the number of To keep the building cool in summer due to the high temperature in
computational cells as well as time step should be examined. In this Kuwait, it is recommended to use an air conditioning unit. The air
study, the most important parameter is heat gain, which is obtained conditioning unit uses electricity to dissipate the effects of heat ex­
according to Eq. (1). Focusing on Eq. (1), it is observed that the heat gain change. In Kuwait, the main source of electricity is fossil fuels [36],
depends on the inner wall surface temperature. The sensitivity of the which produce a large amount of greenhouse gases. In fossil power
inner wall surface temperature (output parameter) to time/spatial steps plants, greenhouse gas emissions are variable and the most important
parameter is attributed to the type of fuel.

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

Fig. 11. Investigate the capabilities of each PCM in reducing heat gain.

Fig. 12. The energy-saving capability due to using different PCM in vertical Fig. 13. CO2 saving owing to loading different PCM in vertical walls +
walls + roof (July). roof (July).

However, CO2 saving owing to energy-saving is obtained from the Second scenario- annual analysis
following equation
In the previous section, numerical calculations were performed for
CO2 saving = (Energy − saving)
⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏟ ⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏟ July and it was revealed that adding RT-31 reduced the heat gain by
15.25%. This figure for RT-35 and RT-42 was 15 and 14.21%,
kg kWh

× (amount of greenhouse gases emission per kWh) kgCO2 (14) respectively.

⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏟ kWh
Fig. 14 shows the daily heat transfer for the conventional walls +
For coal, natural gas and petroleum, the amount of greenhouse gases roof and conventional walls + roof + RT-31. On many days, the daily
emission is 1, 0.413 and 0.966 kWh , respectively [37]. Considering heat transfer for PCM-based walls + roof is less, and this is very desir­
CO2 kg

natural gas as the main source of energy for fossil power plants in Kuwait able. Because lower daily heat exchange means less internal energy
[36], the CO2 saving due to the use of PCM inside the walls + roof is variations in interior space and therefore the air conditioning system can
keep constant the interior space temperature with less energy usage.
reported in Fig. 13. Under the best scenario, CO2 saving is 14.32 (RT-
kgCO
2
m2
However, for some days, the amount of daily heat transfer is increased
31).
by adding RT-31 to the walls + roof.
However, annual analysis shows that for PCM-based wall, heat
transfer is lower, which means that less energy is transferred between

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A.A.A.A. Al-Rashed et al. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments 46 (2021) 101254

scenario, the effect of PCM on heat transfer was examined for July (the
warmest month). In the second scenario, the annual energy saving was
investigated. The most important results were reported as follows:
First scenario results (calculations for July):

• In July, loading PCM into the walls + roof reduced the heat gain by
15.25% (for RT-31), 15% (RT-35) and 14.21% (RT-42).
• In July, inserting PCM led to energy-saving by 34.68kWh
m2
(for RT-31),
34.12kWh
m2
(for RT-35) and 32.32kWh
m2
(for RT-42). Moreover, the CO2
emission owing to loading RT-31, RT-35 and RT-42 was diminished
by 14.32, 14.1 and 13.34%, respectively.

Second scenario results (annual analysis)

• Annual results revealed that owing to inserting RT-31, RT-35 and RT-
42 into the walls + roof, the annual heat exchange decreased by
25.71%, 9.57%, and 4%, respectively. Moreover, the maximum
annual CO2 saving was associated with RT-31 (198.65m2 .year ).
CO2 kg

Fig. 14. Daily heat transfer variations in conventional walls + roof and PCM-
based one. Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial

interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.

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