Energy Management of Air Conditioning System Using Phase Change Material

The need for air conditioning has increased by 72% globally as a result of global warming, consuming 20% of global electricity production. Electricity is produced at the expense of burning fossil fuel causing climate change and global warming. To reduce electric and energy consumption, integrated phase change material (PCM) in a vapour-compression air conditioning system is being used to overcome this problem. In the current study, a prototype model of an air-cooling system using water as PCM was assessed. The study was based on freezing water in an ice container while maintaining air supply in the room to human comfort zones between \(22\,^{\circ }\) C to \( 27\,^{\circ }\) C and to look into the effect on supplying cool air passing over the ice, once the compressor is turned off. The total cooling load required for 2 rooms with a volume of 0.21  \(\textrm{m}^3\) was found to be 16.89 kWh/day and ice melting time was measured as 5.73 h. The annual electricity savings from thermal backup with 1097.2 units/year was calculated in Pakistani Rupees as 33,278 (USD 119.89/ year). The results showed it utilized 6 h to completely freeze water in the ice container before thermal backup from ice was maintained for 2 h with the temperature kept at \(20.8\,^{\circ }\) C in the zones. The surface temperature of the ice container decreased from \(11\,^{\circ }\) C to \(2\,^{\circ }\) C during this period. Due to load shift operation, and economic and environmental benefits, this process can result in reducing the annual energy demand charges, simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint of buildings.