WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF INCLUDING LATENT STORAGE IN COMMONWALLBOARD

Previous work has shown that wallboard can be successfully manufacture d to contain rip to 30 percent phase-change material (PCM), or wax, th us enabling this common building material to serve as a thermal energy storage device. The PCM wallboard was analyzed for passive solar appl ications and found to save energy with a reasonable payback time perio d of five years. Further evaluations of the wallboard are reported in this paper this analysis looks at potential applications of PCM wallbo ard as a lend management device and as a comfort enhancer. Results sho w that the wallboard is ineffective in modifying the comfort level but can provide significant lend management relief. In some applications the lend management strategy also serves to save a small amount of ene rgy, in others there is a small energy penalty.