Phase Change Double-Skin Facade

Phase Change Double-Skin Facade

When we go back to the history and development of double skin facades, we find that it is a kind of passive building system, using a ventilated cavity as a thermal butter, which reduces problems such as undesired heat gain during the cooling season and heat loss during the heating season. The prototype is the two layers are separated by an air cavity with fixed or controllable inlets and outlets and now it has many incorporations with other systems, like adding a shading system, solar chimney, and vegetation for better natural ventilation and thermal comfort. 

The double-skin facade combined with PCM offers some improvement in insulation over the unusual curtain wall. However, the future system does not perform as well as the normal DSF system during the daytime in typical winters. How to improve the light transmission of the system needs to be further studied.