Volume 12: Low Carbon Cities and Urban Energy Systems: Part I

Thermal diode bridge for the temperature control in built environment Yongjia Wu, Shifeng Yu, Tingzhen Ming

Abstract

In this paper, we proposed a novel concept of using thermal diode bridge (TDB) and phase change materials (PCMs) to control the temperature in the built environment continuously without any external energy consumption. In the daytime, the solar energy was efficiently harvested and stored in the PCMs so the indoor temperature was significantly reduced. At night, the thermal energy stored in the PCMs was used to heat the room. A thermodynamic model was established to evaluate the performance of the system. It was found that the temperature as well as the temperature variation in the built environment can be significantly reduced with zero energy consumption and green gas emission.

Keywords Built environment, temperature control, thermal diode bridge, solar energy