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Phase Change Material deployable partitions?

Alejandra Menchaca

Vice President

Thornton Tomasetti

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

July 24, 2018

Have any of you heard of anyone ever using phase change material (PCM) "movable partitions" as a resiliency strategy to mitigate indoor overheating during a heat wave in passive buildings? You'd keep them stored in a basement or cool room, and deploy them into habitable spaces during the heat wave to keep the space cooler than the exterior conditions.

Many questions come to mind in terms of the feasibility of the strategy (how long is the heat wave? how much PCM would be needed?), but I first wanted to get a sense of whether this has been done before, perhaps in Europe or developing countries.

Thank you all in advance!

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Allison Wilson

Sustainability Director

Ayers Saint Gross

LEEDuser Basic Member

5 thumbs up

Tue, 07/24/2018 - 20:00

Check out some of the various Solar Decathlon houses over the year (https://www.solardecathlon.gov/). Every competition there are at least a couple houses that do some kind of an operable or stationary PCM feature that might give you a sense of how much is required to be useful.

Chris Flint Chatto

Principal

ZGF Architects

LEEDuser Premium Member

9 thumbs up

Tue, 07/24/2018 - 20:12

Not sure. We joked a bit about this when designing the RMI innovation center that this might be a strategy to maintain thermal comfort in the large conference/presentation room (with no mechanical cooling) but ultimately didn’t need to, based on the expanded comfort range and existing thermal mass (and PCM more traditionally deployed behind gyp board and slotted ceilings. One of the challenges of course with thermal mass or PCM, is their radiant effectiveness based on the occupant “view” of the material, it would seem the wheel it in strategy might have an advantage of a typical install where it is located behind a layer of gyp board. From:

Ed Clark

Sustainable Designer

LEEDuser Basic Member

44 thumbs up

Tue, 07/24/2018 - 20:26

This seems like a great strategy and one I have contemplated many times. Finding free or cheap "coolth" is absolutely necessary to reap savings. Radiant exchange with occupants would also be a benefit comfort. Some of the pcm companies have dynamic mass modeling capabilities and could sort out deployment issues pretty quickly. Look and feel will require much more discussion. I can imagine the most challenging aspect would be the logistics and personnel challenges with movement, storage etc. ed On Tue, Jul 24, 2018, 12:52 PM Alejandra Menchaca < no-reply@buildinggreen.com> wrote:

Tue, 07/24/2018 - 21:27

Hi Alejandra PCM is like thermal mass with a higher heat capacity. While I was waiting for the manufacturer to give me some numbers I did these quick calculations for a project a couple of months ago. The result was that because it was a very hot climate I did not have enough space to include all the PCM I needed to stabilize the temperature. Of course it is more complicated than this but it helped me get an idea. I don’t think it is easy to move around. Better to integrate in the construction and have it working from day one. Like thermal mass, wont work very well if you have in a big lump better if it is spread out in the space. [cid:image003.png@01D4235A.71431EC0] Pablo La Roche PhD LEED AP BD+C Associate Vice President +1 213 633 1194 Direct +1 213 631 6203 Cell [CallisonRTKL-Logo-RGB-01] F

Paul Hutton

Chief Sustainability Officer

Cuningham Group

LEEDuser Premium Member

0 thumbs up

Wed, 07/25/2018 - 19:11

Hi Alejandra, Attached are photos of the Tsinghua University entry from the 2013 China Solar Decathlon, where I was a juror. This project used pcm as wax globules embedded in the concrete floor. I recall other SD projects using pcm as well, but to the best of my knowledge they weren’t movable. In the 70’s a few solar houses were designed with pcm filled cylinders as a solar absorber. Attached is a diagram of that except with water tubes instead of pcm tubes. I can’t find a photo of the pcm filled tubes, but I know I saw them. Have fun with the idea of movable PCM. I’d love to see what your team comes up with! Paul C. Hutton, FAIA., LEED BD+C Cuningham Group Architecture Inc.

Alejandra Menchaca

Vice President

Thornton Tomasetti

LEEDuser Basic Member

0 thumbs up

Wed, 07/25/2018 - 19:32

Thanks Paul and everyone else! These are meant for existing school buildings without any HVAC (nor interest in having it), where the buildings perform fairly well in the summer except during heat waves. They are being considered as a “shelter” for the community during heat wave evenings, which means that the wall surface of a room would probably not be enough to offset the internal gains by lots of people. Partitions that we can roll in just for those times would be worth the cost savings in avoiding having to install a new HVAC system or tear down walls. Will they be worth the effort when compared to installing temporary HVAC units? We’ll see. I’m thinking that maybe we can cool them (re-charge them) with running water during the heat wave…? If you have any more ideas or references please let me know! Ale. Check out our 2017 sustainability report Alejandra Menchaca, Ph.D., LEED AP, WELL AP Senior Associate Thornton Tomasetti 27 Wormwood Street, Suite 200 Boston, MA 02210-1668 T +1.617.250.4100 F +1.617.250.4110 D +1.617.250.4177 M +1.617.999.0274 AMenchaca@ThorntonTomasetti.com www.ThorntonTomasetti.com From: Pau