In a recent CIBSE Journal (March 2017), it was stated that a perfect storm of technical, economic, and cultural factors is causing alarming levels of overheating in homes, according to speakers at a recent Edge debate. Professor Kevin Lomas FCIBSE, from Loughborough University, said the rise in overheating has been caused partly by the move towards airtight, insulated…
Image courtesy of NASA NASA has developed a phase change material heat exchanger — PCM HX for short — which stores energy by thawing a wax-based phase change material using hot coolant. That energy is later rejected by the spacecraft’s radiator, which then refreezes the wax and prepares it for the next heat load. This new type…
SPX Flow (http://www.spxflow.com/en/hankison/) has introduced a new range of energy-saving refrigerated air dryers by Hankison (named FLEX Series – see http://www.powderbulksolids.com/article/New-Compressed-Air-Drying-Technology-02-07-2017), which uses phase change materials in its heat transfer technology, to enable the removal of liquid from compressed air extremely efficiently. The dryers have been designed with a 3-in-1 heat exchanger in which the PCM encapsulates the refrigeration and…
The Mayor of London is seeking to reduce the impact of the urban heat island effect in London and to encourage the design of places and spaces to avoid overheating and excessive heat generation, and to reduce overheating due to the impacts of climate change and the urban heat island effect on an area wide basis. …
Kevin Lomas and Stephen Porritt provide an excellent review of the overheating problems in UK homes. Reference to their paper can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2017.1256136 and it covers the effects of overheating from the South of England to the North of Scotland. The paper is published in Building Research & Information and goes a long…
Phase Change Materials(PCMs), or latent heat storage materials for building applications, are an emerging technology in the UK. They offer a solution for improving the thermal performance and comfort of low thermal mass buildings currently being constructed using modern materials and techniques and also when renovating existing building stock. Find out what PCMs are, how they…