%0 Journal Article %T Comparative assessment of thermal comfort with Insulation and phase change materials utilizations in building roofs and walls %J Advanced Materials Proceedings %I International Association of Advanced Materials %Z 2002-4428 %A Biplab, Kumar %A Rakshit, Dibakar %D 2017 %\ 06/01/2017 %V 2 %N 6 %P 393-397 %! Comparative assessment of thermal comfort with Insulation and phase change materials utilizations in building roofs and walls %K Phase change material %K thermal comfort %K buildings %K microencapsulation %K energy plus %R 10.5185/amp.2017/609 %X Present study deals with estimation of thermal comfort of residential buildings for different scenarios. The three scenarios which are analysed for the present study are construction using brick wall and concrete roof, construction by utilization of insulation over walls and roof and construction by utilization of Phase Change Materials (PCM) over walls and roof.A building is simulated in EnergyPlus using conduction finite difference algorithm. The PCM is microencapsulated in plaster boards thereby restricting any chemical reactions with the building material. The assessment is carried out by calculating the hourly average room dry bulb temperature and average room relative humidity. This is then compared with the thermal comfort conditions provided in National Building Code of India 2005 and a percentage of hours within comfort range is worked out. The assessment is carried out between the months of March and October for three cities i.e. Bhubaneshwar, Jodhpur and New Delhi, all under different climatic conditions. The results indicate that PCM is performing comparatively better than insulation in improving the indoor conditions and that its performance can be greatly enhanced if the operating temperature is increased from 27°C to at least 30°C. Combined with the strategy of night ventilation and enhanced heat capacity storage, PCM could greatly enhance the thermal comfort levels. Copyright © 2017 VBRI Press.  %U https://amp.iaamonline.org/article_16307_9764008aae66b68cf1f7c541d8d8c203.pdf