Synergizing phase change materials, cool paints, and renewables in remote buildings: A techno-economic assessment

Engineering notes

Engineering notes will be added by the Power for Solar editorial team.

Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充：本站会优先为光伏效率、钙钛矿太阳能电池、储能技术、太阳能热利用、BIPV、并网技术等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

This study aims to assess the technical, economic, and environmental performance of retrofitting residential buildings in hot–arid climates using phase-change materials (ATP20 and ATP23), cool paints (white and gray), and small-scale renewable energy systems, with the objective of reducing peak loads, annual energy consumption, and carbon emissions under realistic operating conditions. Hourly whole-building hourly simulations were performed using DesignBuilder, where PCMs were modeled via the effective heat-capacity method, and the resulting reduced load profiles were coupled with MATLAB-based renewable sizing, dispatch, techno-economic, and embodied-carbon analyses. A low-rise residential building in Iranshahr, southern Iran, was used as the case study. The key novelty of this work is the integrated, building-scale techno-economic and embodied-carbon evaluation of commercially available PCMs and cool paints combined with hybrid PV–wind–solar thermal systems, rather than optimized or experimental PCM configurations. Results indicate that the combined passive strategy of ATP20 PCM and white cool paint provides the strongest thermal performance, reducing peak hourly cooling demand by 33.6% and peak hourly heating demand by 41.7%, while ATP23 and gray cool paint deliver smaller but still meaningful reductions. When the optimal passive configuration is integrated with a 4kWp photovoltaic system, a 3 kW wind turbine, and three flat-plate solar water heaters, the hybrid system supplies 89.8% of annual electricity demand and 32.8% of domestic hot water demand, leading to a 96.1% reduction in annual electricity consumption and a 46.0% reduction in natural gas use. Embodied-carbon analysis yields a system carbon payback of approximately 14.5 years, whereas economic assessment results in negative NPVs under current local energy tariffs, indicating that policy incentives, carbon pricing, or further capital cost reductions are necessary for large-scale adoption.<br>

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