I want to model a solar collector with a PCM thermal storage tank (saving heat for the long term) in Energy Plus. Despite searching through the help, I could not find a document that addressed this problem. Does anyone have experience adding PCM to thermal storage in Design Builder or Energy Plus? Thank you in advance.
Does this post answer your question?
Besides, @Jamie Bull posted several questions (1, 2 and 3 ) about PCM thermal storage tank a long time ago. The answer for the last post may also help you i.e. "Another options is to use a normal tank with equivalent storage capacity and operate it within a narrow temperature range." Practically, PCM thermal storage tanks affect the tank size, plant room size, intallation cost, etc., but in terms of energy simulation, the total tank capacity matters and the details of phase change in PCM would not affect the end use that much. If you agree with that, you can simply use a solar collector with a thermal storage tank which is not filled with PCM but has the same storage capacity as your PCM tank, and some good ExampleFiles are in your laptop such as HPAirToAir_wSolarCollectorHWCoil.idf.
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