Simulation Study of Active Ceilings with Phase Change Material in Office Buildings for Different National Building Regulations

The aim of this study was to examine the performance of phase change material (PCM) in active ceilings for an office room under different Danish building regulations for both heating and cooling purposes. A model of a two-person office room was simulated with the only heating and cooling source being radiant ceiling panels containing PCM.

The target was to reduce energy use for the simulation models and still meet the recommended criteria of Category II for the European Standard EN 15251:2007 namely, 23°C – 26°C (73.4°F – 78.8°F) during summer and between 20°C – 24°C (68.0°F – 73.4°F) during winter. The office model was simulated for a whole year and analyzed for three Danish building regulations BR10 (2010), BR15 (2015) and BR20 (2020).

The results show that the indoor environment was within the desired Category II, according to EN 15251 for the whole occupancy period. The predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD) was below the desired 10% for Class II of EN15251during 95% of the occupied hours in a year for BR10, 94% for BR15 and 100% for BR20.

The use of PCM model decreased energy use by 45% for BR10, 35% for BR15, while it increased by 17% for BR20. The results indicate that active ceilings with integrated PCM could help maintain a satisfactory thermal indoor environment while reducing the energy use. This demonstrated a great potential for PCM to be used to achieve strict energy frame requirements for future low energy buildings.