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...

Microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCM) are well known in advanced technologies for the utilization in active and passive systems, which have the capacity to absorb and slowly release the latent heat involved in a phase change process. Microcapsules consist of little containers, which...

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...

Storage and transport of temperature sensitive products have become an important issue worldwide. The enhancement of thermal performance of cold application is under investigation and implementing thermal energy storage (TES) systems by using phase change materials (PCM) is one of the solutions...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a source of information on thermal energy use in buildings, its drivers, and their past, present and future trends on a global and regional basis. Energy use in buildings forms a large part of global and regional energy demand. The importance of heating...

Thermal energy storage (TES) is moving towards thermochemical materials (TCM) which present attractive advantages compared to sensible and phase change materials. Nevertheless, TCM are more complex to characterize at lab scale and also the implied technology, which belongs to the chemical...

Currently, there is an increasing interest in concentrated solar power (CSP) plants as alternative to produce renewable electricity at large scale by using mirrors to concentrate the solar energy and to convert it into high temperature heat. These facilities can be combined with thermal energy...

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,...

Among the research activities that aim at reducing energy consumption in buildings and their impact on the environment is an experimental set-up that has several house-shaped cubicles constructed in Puigverd de Lleida (Spain). Assessing the environmental impact through studying the...

This review summarizes and organizes the literature on life cycle assessment (LCA), life cycle energy analysis (LCEA) and life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) studies carried out for environmental evaluation of buildings and building related industry and sector (including construction products,...