@article{35700, author = {Ruijiao Miao and Ravi Kishore and Sumanjeet Kaur and Ravi S Prasher and Chris Dames}, title = {A non-volatile thermal switch for building energy savings}, abstract = {

Compared with traditional static insulation, a thermally switchable building envelope could reduce annual heating and cooling loads by intermittently coupling to the outside environment when beneficial. Here, we demonstrate a voltage-actuated, contact/non-contact thermal switch that meets the unique challenges of this application. The switch is non-volatile, consuming electricity only briefly while switching and none to hold steady state. The switch ratio is 12, the off state has a low effective thermal conductivity of $0.045 W m^{- 1} K^{- 1}$ , comparable to fiberglass insulation, and the performance is stable over 1,000 switching cycles. Numerical simulations using real-world climate data show that combining this thermal switch with a thermal storage layer in a building envelope can yield annual energy savings of 9%–55% (heating) and 17%–76% (air conditioning), depending on the climate zone. The greatest benefits are realized when the exterior temperature crosses well above and below the desired interior temperature within a single 24 h period.

}, year = {2022}, journal = {Cell Reports Physical Science}, volume = {3}, pages = {100960}, month = {07/2022}, issn = {26663864}, url = {https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2666386422002417}, doi = {10.1016/j.xcrp.2022.100960}, language = {eng}, }