This paper presents a review of the literature on low carbon and low embodied energy materials in buildings. Embodied energy is defined and discussed vs. operating energy of buildings and its growing importance due to the implementation of the Energy Building Performance Directive (EBPD) in...

The use of thermal energy storage (TES) systems for solar heating and cooling applications has received considerable attention in recent decades because it has a high potential in energy savings. Phase change materials (PCMs) can store large amount of energy per mass unit compared with other TES...

Thermal properties of materials used in building envelopes must be analysed in order to evaluate the thermal response of the constructive system. This thermal characterisation is a key point during the design phase of a building. However, thermal characterisation of constructive systems at...

Due to the high interest of appropriate characterization of PCM and hybrid PCM composites, different research centres and universities are using several material characterization techniques not commonly used with PCM, to study the structure and morphology of these materials. Likewise,...