Effect of PCM in improving the thermal cooling comfort in buildings ceiling

The demand for energy increases around Australia because of the massive growth in population and industrial sector, which lead to Increase energy supply. A result of this growth, Increase in the consumption of fossil fuel and that produce more CO2 emission. Many scientist and engineers claimed. Phase change material (PCM) considered a great option in the residential building to save energy and thermal comfort. From this concept, the thesis purposes are to analyse and investigate PCM performance in passive cooling in the residential ceiling by modelling, and experiment methods whether PCM will save cost and reduce CO2 emission. The method was divided into two parts the first one in modelling and the second part is experimenting. The first part was by modelling the PCM with other types of insulations in the ceiling with the consideration of weather data history around Murdoch University location and the measurement of the whole ceiling design. OPAQUE 3.0 beta software has been used to calculate all of heat gain, heat loss, and an energy reduction of the system in summer and winter. The second part was the experiment and analysed the effect of PCM in the small-scale build that symbolises house with the ceiling. Three-way valve and 5v fans used to control airflow within the ceiling in three different operation conditions Ventilation, Recycling, and Shutdown. Lab View and Arduino software were used to control the airflow and operation conditions by setting the upper limit temperature and the lower limit temperature of the human comfort zone. The outcome from modelling and simulation of the PCM shows an annual energy reduction between (13% - 21%) and CO2 equivalent emission reduced from 70 Kg to (60.9 Kg to 55.3 Kg). Furthermore, the experiment results indicate a temperature increase inside the build of 3 degrees Celsius as an effect known as greenhouse effect. Both results from simulation, experiment are close, and there was a minor difference in result. Weather was the main factor of not to cover the full potential of the PCM because the experiment done in June. PCM shows promising future in energy reduction and decrees CO2 emission