Optimization of PCM-enhanced residential building envelopes in cold climates: Energy performance and cost-effectiveness analysis
Why this work is in the frame
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Bibliographic record
Abstract
• Developed efficient simulation-based optimization framework with convergence analysis. • PCM optimization balanced source energy use and cost in Canadian cold climates. • HVAC energy use, sizing, load profile, and efficiency analyzed under PCM use. • Economic analysis identified PCM investment priorities and viable future conditions. This study presents a techno-economic optimization of phase change material (PCM)-enhanced residential building envelopes in Canadian cold climates, aiming to minimize both annual source energy use and life-cycle cost. A multi-objective optimization framework was developed by coupling EnergyPlus simulations with the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) and a custom data-logging mechanism. Thirteen PCM-related design variables were considered across four envelope types and four representative cities. The analysis also evaluated the potential downsizing of heating and cooling system capacities in a reference multi-family prototype building. Two objectives, annual source energy intensity and total cost, were optimized to explore trade-offs between energy performance and total cost. Results revealed a clear Pareto front, demonstrating the inherent compromise between energy savings and cost. Optimal configurations favored interior PCM placement, midpoint melting temperatures of 21∼24°C, and narrow melting ranges of 1∼3°C. PCM integration reduced both heating and cooling energy use and modestly decreased HVAC capacity requirements by flattening the cooling load profile, while exhibiting only limited peak-time shifting effects. Economic analysis showed that most current PCM products remain cost-ineffective, with simple payback periods typically exceeding 150 years. The break-even price analyses identified target PCM costs of approximately 1.3, 1.0, 0.85, and 0.65 $/kg for Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal, respectively, to achieve practical feasibility. The proposed framework provided a robust approach for evaluating PCM investment strategies and offered broader insights into optimizing thermal storage-based envelope designs for peak-load management and energy efficiency in cold-climate buildings.
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Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from it