An innovative adaptive double-skin wall system integrating a phase change material layer: comprehensive performances across different climate zones for heating

The adaptive building envelope is an efficient approach for building energy savings and thermal comfort. However, conventional approaches commonly adopted to achieve the adaptive building envelope are advanced materials or complex adaptive structural design alone. In this paper, a novel adaptive PCM double-skin wall system, which combines the PCMs and simple structural design, is proposed, and its comprehensive thermal, energy, economic, and environmental analyses under eight different climate zones during the heating season are analyzed. The findings indicate that compared to the mean ambient temperature, the corresponding indoor temperature can be improved by 15 °C to 40.7 °C. The studied climate zones are classifiable into two distinct categories: Climate Ⅰ and Climate Ⅱ. Climate Ⅰ encompasses cold humid, very cold, and subarctic/arctic zones, while Climate Ⅱ encompasses warm humid, mixed humid, cold humid, mixed dry, and cold dry zones. Furthermore, in Climate Ⅱ, zero carbon emissions, and thermal comfort throughout the day could be achieved. The annual heating cost savings demonstrate a spectrum of 8.27 % to 43.57 % across the studied climate zones, with the exception of the subarctic/arctic zone. The research results will enrich the climate-adaptive envelope structures and provide in-depth and detailed guidance for their practical application.