The effectiveness of organic PCM based on lauric acid from coconut oil and inorganic PCM based on salt hydrate CaCl2.6H2o as latent heat energy storage system in Indonesia
A latent heat energy storage system utilizing phase change materials (PCM) is an alternative strategy to reduce the use of Air Conditioning (AC) system in big cities in Indonesia in order for energy conservation in the future. In this research we used two kinds of materials, namely organic PCM based on lauric acid from coconut oil (CO) and inorganic PCM based on salt hydrate CaCl2.6H2O, because they have thermophysical parameters suitable for human's thermal comfort application in the building. The CO which contained more than 50% lauric acid has the melting temperature (Tm of about 26 degC and heat entalphy (DH) around 103 kJ/kg, while CaCl2.6H2O has the melting point of 29 degC and heat entalphy of 190 kJ/kg. In this paper we report the effectiveness of those two kinds of PCM in reducing the air temperature as one of some criteria for human's thermal comfort. The experiments were performed in a close and adiabatic room and the time temperature measurements were done automatically using Arduino microcontroller and LM35 temperature sensor connected to the PC.