Phase Change Materials in Radiant Heating and Cooling Applications

The majority of the buildings that will exist by the year 2050 in the developed countries have already been built. Therefore, in order to achieve significant reduction in the energy use in the buildings sector, vast changes have to be implemented in the existing buildings. Installing radiant panels with Phase Change Material (PCM) is a solution that could contribute in achieving this goal. This presentation summarizes the fundamentals of PCMs, the advantages and drawbacks of implementing them in radiant systems and an experimental setup in which radiant ceiling panels with embedded PCM are installed and tested in a climate chamber.