Check out Hoymiles for your Solar Micro-Inverters Today! geni.us/Inverters *Corrections/Clarifications Below - When hot outside, the material melts and absorbs energy keeping your room from getting as warm. - When cold outside, the material freezes and releases energy warming up your room. - I had the energy and temperature axes labeled incorrectly they should be switched! Temp on the Y axis, and energy on the X.
Could put the kiwi on the south and west facing walls/roof where the sun is most punishing for best ROI. Have you ever analyzed the NASA-derived ceramic bead paint additive? Could you do a video on it? I find it works extremely well, wish I had added it to my ceiling paint. It seems to add to paint durability as well.
One inverter to two or four panels makes a lot of sense. Everyone seems to love Enphase, one-to-one, but they're so expensive. You can save a lot by going the way you did. I was considering APsystems for my solar system as they have a very similar solution.
Rally interested in how this works for you. The costs of building new construction are insane still. Being able to pull long term savings is more important than just being environmentally positive. Cutting back on other monthly costs is a need for the average family.
True. But the energy storage has a (small?) insulation effect by keeping the temperature of the material the same temperature as your house, thus limiting the heat exchange between the two.
Hi. I watched your video and I think you should do one more test. On temperature chart we don't see the "phase change" horizontal line on chart, you explained at 6:10. This extra insulation you added = a lot of extra mass in one test environment. If you weight it and put an equivalent water bottle to other box you will see similar gains. Only such comparison can give credits to such "phase change" invention.
There was a builder in Wheaton, Illinois back in the mid 80s, who built high-end homes with ultra low energy use. He dabbled with phase change technologies. I’ve been waiting to see that technology go mainstream ever since, and now it looks like we may be only a few years away. It’s about time!
I'm considering making myself a van, and I reckon this kind of material would be perfect there because I'm limited on how much solar I can install on it. In a small space like that the price also is less of a concern, and every last bit of efficiency makes a huge difference.
@@skidaddledude1997 I think a comment above can solve the question, have 2 layers installed in the van. One with a melting point of 15C and another with melting point of 25C. This way you can ensure a phrase change for most weather band widths
I have exactly the same use in mind, only using a bread van/tiny home approach. Perhaps 1/4" of glued in Styrofoam and then a layer of phase change material for cold , with another 1/4" Styrofoam and then another layer for heat, and then your finish paneling. $1000 to $!250 ought to do all surfaces including the floor. A small AC and a mini wood stove should cover most locations. I'm going to put in a suggestion on the 'Project Farm' channel to test this material in a future show. He does some really good tests on a variety of products.
@@allocater2 Not to mention how hot exterior metal would be in summer. That's why I thought a 1/4" of Styrofoam on the inside to slow the incoming heat. Then the first layer of phase change material. I can't see any other way, as it seems pointless to tape directly to the metal wall skin on the inside or outside. Maybe someone has a better idea?
I've been following this for a while. It's cool that it's getting used more. I've seen another version of the technology that uses a tank. Basically it functions like a heat pump, with pipes running through it circulating a coolant/heating agent. Something like that could be used with thermal solar to even more heat for the night. Imagine a system where your photovoltaic cells are cooled, for maximum efficiency, and the waste heat was stored in a tank to heat the house during the night. There is a famous kind of wall art that has a lot of boards sticking out for it, sort of like a maze. When I saw this I thought if you you could design something like that with this in it's core you could have a lot of passive heat exchange because of all the surface area. I think the wall version could probably work between studs. You'd lose a little space at the stud, but I think that would be okay. (Much lower tech, but have you seen T-Studs? They are an all wood product that creates a lot less thermal bridging than normal stud construction by running two studs at right angles with a gap between them. They are connected by dowels and you blow insulation in between them. Your only points of contact are the dowels.
I have something very similar on top of my wood stove - a large pot of parafin wax. When the fire is going it melts the wax (absorbs heat) and when the fire dies down it releases the stored energy as heat as it solidifies. Same principle in action.
Not a bad idea! I hate how poorly wood stoves keep places warm at night - the old stone chimney hearts used to help immensely be releasing heat all night. Near room temp Phase change material like coconut oil, sodium sulphate hydrate or parrafin wax helps do that job while being much lighter for the same energy storage
@@chiliphil64 I think he means that the energy input is constantly increasing (x-axis) but temperature stays constant at phase change temperatures (y-axis). The way he drew the dashed line, the y axis is temperature and the x-axis is energy input.
The QE Platinum would REALLY make sense in the upper-Midwest especially for attic use if your attic is part of the "conditioned space" in the home. If they make it in standard roll widths (12, 16, 24" on center) and the "pouches" about 12" long it could be stapled right to the bottom of the roof rafters to hold your insulation up against the roof decking. It would also help enormously with air infiltration if you tape the seams. Ricky, I suspect THAT will make a huge difference in your house renovation, just getting to a point where your house would pass a blower door test.
What good would a phase change "insulation" be in the upper midwest where it is cold day and night in the winter. It would freeze and stay frozen, offering little resistance to heat transfer.
@@pauleohl True not so much in the winter, that's why our furnaces run damn near 24/7 from Halloween to Memorial Day. During the summer they'd be good at reducing the use of air conditioners though.
@@incognitotorpedo42 Even in summer the nights are usually cool enough to make that shift. _HOWEVER,_ Unless that price tag comes down DRASTICALLY it's just going to be a toy for the rich.
@@michiganengineer8621 Considering that traditional insulation is mandatory for the winter, where would you put the phase change material? And what is your logic for how it would work? For the sake of this discussion, let's say that removing and replacing drywall is not an issue.
You should make it clear that phase change material is only useful in locations where the temperature swings across the melting point/desired temperature: In the days it’s hotter than desired and the excess energy melts the material. For instance in Minnesota in the winter, days are much warmer than nights, but there’s never excess heat to melt the material. It’s best in desert climates where the nights are cold and the days are hot.
At 2:55 Ricky mentions that the product is customizable. I wonder if it would make sense to use two customizations in the same wall. For example if it is possible to make the freezing/melting point 15C or at 25C, would layers of the two combined help keep the house more temperate than using a single larger layer tuned to 20C?
Well, not necessarily just in deserts. It depends on the material and at what specific temperature it changes pahse, so you would probably just need a daily temperature delta that's pronounced enough and a material that changes phase within that delta for it to work.
@@From_Heller I didn’t mean just deserts, but the swing has to cross “room temperature “. A place like Miami in the summer or Minnesota in the winter are not helped.
After spinning it in my head for a couple of minutes, I think you are probably right about the "crossing room temperature" constraint... I didn't take it into account and was just focused on the material properties :)
Thanks a lot for sharing this. Definitely sounds very interesting. If you could make a video on how you plan to seal your house so air drafts don't constantly move in and out, but still maintaining some sort of fresh air input so the house doesn't get stuffy or have stale air, it would be very helpful to me.
_Hey Ricky. The way you drew the water heating graph, Energy should be on the x axis and Temperature on the y axis... or you should draw the line differently given the way you labelled the axes._
we not only use PCM in wall and ceiling, but also put in floor heating to save energy. This do increase thermal comfort and purely passive way. very smart material 😃😀
6:15 In case of water, the "stays flat for a while" is a really long while at 100 °C. Heating 1 kg of water from 0 °C to 100 °C takes about 418 kJ. Boiling 1 kg of water from 100 °C to 101 °C takes about 2247 kJ (or 5 times more than getting it from zero to hundred).
Last year a bunch of power lines were pulled down, dominoes effect. We live in a 3rd floor apartment and Maryland summers are pretty hot. We just got done many triple digits in two weeks. Being poor and disabled jumping up to leave is not in the cards. I saw a video on PCMs cool packs that could save your life. Nighthawkinlight, was the channel, he has different ones. I made the one that used sodium sulfate. They work great. I made them soaking pieces of fleece in and sealing in space storage bags. I even gave some to my nephew as a police officer in vest he can't really do the over the shoulder cool packs. But sitting on them helps. I am so happy to see insulation being made. I now think homes need to go cave like for the heat coming. I'd like to see bales of straw soaked in the one used for homes and shrink wrapped in reflective foil. Build straw bale homes with them and cob the outside. And somehow add 90% shade cloth over a few feet past the home roof to keep the area right around the home cooler. Use various percentages of shade cloth over kids play areas, gardens. We are just going to have to change the way we look at it. Comfort and less power needed to stay cool or warm over a perfect looking home and garden. To help my 3rd floor apartment, I make foam board inserts that help tremendously but we get the sun from sunrise to 130ish, for hours... You can feel the heat from the walls. So afraid now to even stay at 78f because once power goes out it heat us super quick during the day. Apartment complexes need to use thermal paint to help people with their heating and cooling costs. Because I don't think using thermal paint inside would help much.
This sounds great, I well understand the concept having done fractional distillation. My only concern is here in Australia during the Global Financial Crises, Our Labour government did world beating moves to keep our economy going by spending on benefit programs. One was a massive subsidy on home insulation, aluminum insulation was one rushed out and several people were electrocuted because of the rush. I will check out this for my place and see if it is available.
glad to see you recognizing AC coupled microinverters. whoa! Personally I'm team Enphase but its good to have competition in the market. Keep up the great work!
I like the idea of lining walls with phase change material... Oh thats exactly what you are talking about, I'm not even kidding I was writing the comment while listening and was like "yeh insolation is cool and all, but... Oh well yeh that XD." Thing I think other people haven't thought of yet is using this on solar panels though because solar panels operate more efficiently at lower temperatures, but they are black and out in the sun... so... but you put this stuff on the back with a melting point of like 30C or something and it can store the relatively cool temps of night for the day to cool the solar panels and this stuff isn't expensive to make so increasing your solar panel efficiency by 15% or so and also increasing their longevity is not a bad deal.
Living near Phoenix & I need to reinsulate my attic sometime soon, I will legitimately look into this stuff. I got two ACs for this place, the less I use them the better lol.
Better test might be to frame out a wall with plywood backing, and every two studs change the insulation material, then enclose it with sheet rock (or just another piece of plywood), then just point a thermal camera at it (This is me assuming that you doing what you do, you already have one). To simulate indoor/outdoor just prop it at a 45* angle somewhere exposed to the sun and point the camera at the under side. You could of course make the box more elaborate, but the thermal camera should be a very accurate comparison/measurement, and putting them all in one wall controls for different levels of exposure as long as the whole wall gets equal sun.
Very exciting Ricky! Almost as exciting as tonight's Tesla Investor Day 2023 presentations! 🤪 Question below. But first, It seems this new "insulation" is great as it takes advantage of the delta-T between night and day. I realize you said they have custom formulations for different regions. BUT, WHAT do you THINK is better; a region with greater delta-T like some deserts 🏜 with 60° Temp swings, OR more modest areas like SD where your swing in Temp is more gentle? 🤔 So my QUESTION is: would you still want to install a "flash coat" of spray foam in your wall before applying this on the inside toward the sheet rock? My thought is that with a 1-2" flash coat I would not only improve my Air & Vapor Control layer and prevent dewpoint condensation between my in/outside walls but it would also keep the thermal exchange benefits closer to the living space...? Your thoughts? Cheers, Eric
I would consider this material for radiators . On a south wall thermal panels collect heat and transfer it to radiators inside a house during winter, in summer you run the system in revers during nights to cool a house
Your vids are great! Thanks for contributing. One suggestion: How about redo-ing the heat energy vs temp chart so you don't confuse your viewers... The temp of ice stays at 0C while absorbing more and more heat until it all melts, and so forth...
this is a really cool technology, if you think about it, it functions more as a heat sink and less as insulation, but that's actually really useful, because not only is it blocking heat from outside, it would also pull heat from inside, people,electronics,lights,fridges and dryers, all produce heat that it would pull and slowly release later on.
I appreciate the fact that you actually tested the setup, and those tests clearly shows the advantages. I wonder how they made it, do you have any further information?
I am AMAZED by how poorly the rock wool was installed. A properly insulated wall starts with caulking the joints between studs and plywood/particle board. The insulation bats are trimmed to allow a bit of spring while installing, assuring a slight pressure against studs and walls. I added an aluminum vapour barrier as I use radiant heating. I would like to see how this product functions in addition to a properly installed insulation.
"I would like to see how this product functions in addition to a properly installed insulation." - I think that's the way it's meant to be used, never on its own. Remember, the manufacturer simplifies their explanation and always presents the best case scenario. But in the real world, the situation is a bit more complex. The phase-change material (henceforth PCM) will absorb heat from the sun during the day, using it to fuel its melt. Unlike the sun in the manufacturer's presentations, though, the real one is not so considerate to stop shining the moment your PCM has fully liquefied. And at that point, the PCM can no longer absorb excess heat efficiently and becomes useless. You can retard the moment at which this happens by adding classical insulation: the more heat you keep away from the PCM, the less it needs to absorb, and the slower it "runs out". At night, assuming the outside temperature falls below the melting point, the PCM will solidify, and release its stored energy. Once all the material has solidified, it becomes useless again. Assuming the PCM is your only means of insulation, most of its stored energy is simply released into the atmosphere. But assuming decent insulation, it becomes harder to release to the outside, and most of the stored energy gets released to the inside of the house instead. But what about high summer or the dead of winter? Well, I don't know where you live, but where I live, the temperature ranges for summer and winter don't overlap, which means there is no viable phase change temperature that would work in both seasons. So a choice has to be made. If we optimise for summer, then the material becomes useless in winter. If we optimise for winter, it becomes useless in summer. So we need a solution for the season in which the material does not contribute. And again, classical insulation is the answer here. So no matter what the situation, proper insulation is the base on top of which one might opt to install this for additional comfort and/or decreased climate control bills.
Very interesting, we live in middle Georgia and think this could be a big benefit for us, especially if all we have to do is lay it on top of the current insulation. That makes it a DIY project.
I am in Atlanta and have spray foam in my attic. Before spray foam the attic temperature could be 120 degrees in summer. After spray foam never higher than 90 degrees. It cost about $7000 to install. It makes a big difference in electricity bills. Looks like this other material might be more efficient but more costly.
It would be really interesting to see your test compared to 2" closed cell spray foam, and for a cost comparison of the different methods at a typical home scale.
phase change material and spray foam are different materials for different purposes. spray foam is an insulation material, slowing down the heat exchange between inside and outside. it does not store heat. phase change material, on the other hand, stores heat but it does not provide insulation, IOW it does not slow down the heat exchange. if you don't have insulation, i don't see the point of phase change material, because PCM will not affect how much heat is lost. what i would do if my numbers came up is make sure that the house is really well insulated and then add some phase change material.
@@mrxmry3264 Properly installed closed cell spray foam is also an air and vapor barrier, something those other froms of insulation don't do (well, maybe the PCM, but it depends on how it's installed and if the edges are all bonded). I suspect PCM is great for places with daily temperature swings above and below comfortable temperatures (e.g. deserts), but not as useful in cold climates.
@@mrxmry3264 The object of the PCM is to control the heat by absorbing it and then discharging (desorbing) it. The benefit is controlling peak temperatures and the delta across an insulating layer.. Imagine a 72 degree thermostat setting, with an R 20 of glass or some other insulation then air attic air temp of 140. What you have in this example is a 68degree delta across the insulation layer (140/72=68) Now lay a 3/8" blanket of PCM on top that stays at or near its phase change temperature of say 82f. What you have done is controlled the delta across the insulation layer. Dropping the temperature difference from 68 degrees to 10. An R 20 is much more likely to give satisfactory results when dealing with a 10 degree delta than a 68 degree. This is appropriate for largely cooling environments.
Well, ir may be good as retrofit,but for a new house I'd simply build the way I did. Concrete slab in the ground floor as well as first floor provide excellent heat accumulation. Aircrete walls polystyrene wall insulation, triple pane glass and thick rockwool roof insulation complete it, giving the house then properties you were wishfully talking about. I'm planning a next house to be earth-covered though, that's really the highest level in terms of temperature control.
I saw a good video on earth covered houses by an engineer. He said the extra engineering and structural support, and the extra maintenance you need rarely offset the savings. He said a thicker wall is a better solution, unless you have a tight lot and no other place to put your lawn. A breakthrough I'm watching is aerogel filled windows. Windows, even triple glazed heat reflecting, still are always going to be your weak point. Aerogel has such insanely high R values per inch though that it can give them a fighting chance. The trick is to make the aerogel clear enough, solar degradation resistant, and affordable.
@@nacoran Of course, if you have a link or name, I'd appreciate it :-). But it's a bit strange, earth covered house should be maintenance free, not the opposite. I'm talking about real earth covered house, not a "green roof", which is a kind of fashion these days. As for structural point, we in Europe already build houses from materials, that are able to bear quite a load. Concrete houses are no exceptions, and it's not more expensive, than our other options. As well as insulation - we insulate houses a lot anyways. Of course, earth-covered house is still a bit more expensive, primarily due to unique design procedures and very important and costly water proofing. If a design and/or construction of an earth covered house is underestimated, then it turns into nightmare, that's totally true. But it should be done in a way that it will last hundreds of years without touching anything else but things like appliences. I don't know about aerogel, I have quite doubts about it, but time will tell :-). My tripple pane windows filled with Argon gas are doing quite good job, I'd say. I mean most of houses didn't even get to that point of effectiveness, even here in Europe. Any financially feasible solution is appreciated, of course.
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Great video, just a little comment about your graph, put Temp on vertical axis, because moving to the right implies constant energy and an increase in temperature.
This material has potential as a simple thermal battery type of system even without being included as part of a building's construction. It still ultimately comes down to the thermal mass and heat carrying capacity of it, same as it would for water or sand. The larger bonus comes from it's ability to hold temperature closer to it's phase change threshold, enhancing comfort near that setpoint. A Burnout hot drink tumbler uses a similar material to maintain heat via the same process, both by quickly cooling off hot liquids to a drinkable temperature, and by maintaining a drinkable hot temperature range for hours after that. (I highly recommend it over an Ember, which will eventually fail and be unrepairable garbage in 3-5 years.)
Agreed. I looked into the cost of it and was soured immediately for retrofitting. It may make more sense in new construction, but I quit doing the math at that point.
@James Karrie Actually it can make some sense for many older homes with poor air infiltration control that experience more rapid heat gain and loss in less extreme environments. But even in my 1901 built home, I don't see that penciling out in my favor for decades.
@James Karrie There is some debate over the efficacy of completely sealing older homes like mine without rehabbing the siding with a wrap or otherwise. It was built to shed water and breathe. Making the siding air tight risks trapping moisture and creating an environment for rot that is simply not an issue at all for it now (except for exterior window sills when the paint has failed). I'm sure it's possible if done right, but 122 years of avoiding rot so far is a tough record to buck.
1. It seems it doesn’t necessary to use the termostatic material the same as isolation. It can be located anywhere inside of the area. It can be even cheeper not to spread it over walls surface, but have just a volume with pipes connected to AC or a fan. It can work just the same as AC connected cooling/heating pipes underground. 2. The phase change temperature should be close to what you want to be inside. It intuitively seems most efficient.
We used a similar method to keep medical drugs at a steady temperature inside a refrigerator and freezer compartments. Worked well as the drugs were in the middle of a thermal case.
2BDV- Your roof is a solar installers dream. Only a flat commercial flat roof would be easier. You could have installed the racking yourself if you wanted to.
Thank you for sharing this, I am keenly interested in this product. HOWEVER... to address the major issue you had in your testing, you didn't install any vapor barrier or house wrap. So yes, there is going to be a lot of air leakage and not just testing for ambient temperatures.
Idea for that company: Manufacture vinyl or aluminum siding with that built into it. I imagine if one were to install siding on top of it, it would be very tricky to prevent nails from being driven through it.
Three options not mentioned: 1) heating or cooling can be applied inside the wall to directly store that heat or coolth so the heating or cooling is only needed when the sun is shining (solar input) 2) some drywall companies have an option of beads filled with phase change material inside the gypsum part of the drywall 3) different temperature phase change material can be used on the top or bottom of the room depending on if the material is for cooling mode or heating mode.
Regarding 2) do you have experience with them? Or does these products have authentic public reviews by construction companies, individual owners, etc? Could you please share such products and company names? I'd be interested in doing some research about such products in the EU / Europe.
@@1dayUllC I had seen at least 3 companies proposing such products but I found an article about it and apparently, none of these products were successful and are no longer marketed. An alternative idea is to place pcm materials between two layers of normal drywall... pcm materials expand and contract significantly so that has to be taken into consideration. I have plans but no experience.
Also, there are several brands of thick flexible glue used for sound blocking by putting this glue between two sheets of normal drywall. This could be used between the pcm packets for both sound deadening and thermal storage.
Wow...thank you for bringing this material to light...will be awesome when the big box stores start carrying this to allow for better costs to DIY type folks...I hope. Lol
Certainly sounds very interesting. For those of us who experience a big range between summer and winter temperatures, how would they optimize the composition? It all comes down to how much this could save in a particular region compared with the capital cost.
This material works on daily temperature differences. It does nothing for seasonal differences. During the day it absorbs heat, during the night it releases heat. All the while (ideally) keeping the temperature of inside of your house, so no heat is exchanged between the inside and the material.
That's an interesting concept for a Thermal barrier. I wonder if we would have to have dual or triple phase change layers where I live. Have each layer phase change at a different temperature. It goes from -33 to 45 C where I live. Or -28 to 115 F..... The extremes on both ends of the spectrum throughout the year. Sounds like cool stuff.
now this would be great for some climate zones as mentioned. But like what they are doing for attics is top tier. Just roll it out. But Id like to add one further which is helping to air seal without removing the current insulation and lay it on the joists. I use a radient barrier and it really helps in the summer for our climate zone 3 and since the jet stream is getting all out of wack because of global warming, products like this to regulate tempature will help to reduce load on the grid. but shading in your climate zone further is needed with the use of proper insulation.
Very cool. I’m planning on insulating the attic with 2-inch rigid foam insulation between rafters with 1-inch space between the underside and the insulation for ventilating the shingles. Makes no sense to have an uninsulated attic especially in regions where the contractor installs the air-handler in the attic.
Living in LA, this seems like a great product!!! I live in a termite area so I'm scared of covering up my wood for when I inspect it; I would want a way to easily install and uninstall it, so I can easily inspect my attic.
My biggest concern would be condensation. Exterior envelope design is a constant balancing act between thermal regulation, air infiltration, and moisture resistance. Water getting trapped somewhere in a wall and not being able to dry out is a recipe for disaster. So I worry about how much this product sweats during a phase change. If it's radiating heat while the air around it is cooling, then condensation within the wall sounds inevitable. Which isn't necessarily a dead end, but allowing drainage for that water and evaporative airflow over it will require a very specific wall design. I wouldn't be comfortable casually swapping this in on a wall original designed for batts or rigid.
Big question: (example values used here only to convey the question) Say the material melts between 20 and 30 degrees (C). Then solidifies below 20. It is 20 degrees and it is getting warmer/hotter. It gets to 30 degrees and continues to get warmer/hotter. Inside the building when the external temperature goes above 20 the insulation starts to melt and so "phase changes" and the heat is not conveyed inside the building. As the temperature gets to 30 and STAYS that way for .... 10 HOURS, the insulation would have melted by then. What happens to the heat there after? The insulation can't "keep melting" and so would either turn to gas, or transmit the heat through the wall. If it turns to gas: How much expansion happens? (Eg: balloons. Water turning to steam. MASSIVE increase in volume). This type of insulation would have a maximum time for effectiveness. Beyond that it wouldn't work as described.
If you would like to have "free" heating and cooling and you have mechanical ventilation installed. Then use the ground. I live in Sweden and we have both cold winters and warm summers. We use the metrical system so forgive me for not using the imperial system here. I ran across a clever guy that had constructed a system where he took all the incoming air to the house via two 200 mm 25 m long each plastic ground pipes. He dugg them down into the ground below the freezing level and filled up around the pipes with clay dirt closest to the pipes. This gave the best thermal conductivity. During the winter he measure +2 degrees Celsius at the inlet in the house after 2 weeks with constant outside temperature of about -20 Celsius. In the summer he measure an inlet temperature of about +17 to +18 degrees Celsius when it is about +25 to +30 degrees Celsius outside. The cost for this is the installation cost and then the cost for driving his ordinary mechanical ventilation which is not a great cost at all and also often is there anyway. See to it that you put good enough space between the two pipes and also dimension them so that the airspeed through the pipes are slow enough for the air to conduct the temperature from the surrounding ground.
I’m a retired general contractor/building inspector/plans examiner/chief building official & Director of Building and Safety Department, and your comment about gray water collection caught my attention. I wish I could have worked another decade or two, so that I could have encouraged city and county governments to accept alternative methods and materials, including separated plumbing systems that allowed reuse of gray water. Have you investigated the current restrictions on gray water use in your city?
Might be good for your area where the average temp (ground temp?) is 70F or so. Maybe not so good for other climes. Once it changes to the wrong phase, how much do you need to pay to change it back? What if it stays warm for a while? Or cold? There's a reason we don't build houses with foot-thick solid walls anymore.
The material goes "dead" when it permanently stays cold. It also goes "dead" when it permanently stays hot. It only works if the day is hot and the night is cold. I.e. desert climates.
How does humidity work with that phase change insulation . Would that affect installation in different climate zones . High humidity affects where the vapor barrier is located aluminum foil is clearly a vapor barrier as well as radiant barrier. Dew point at at 67-75 can collect a great deal of moisture, inside of a wall moisture becomes a death sentence for structural components. Is that probability figured out foam insulated SIPs had issues with that.
Could put the kiwi on the south and west facing walls/roof where the sun is most punishing for best ROI. Have you ever analyzed the NASA-derived ceramic bead paint additive? Could you do a video on it? I find it works extremely well, wish I had added it to my ceiling paint. It seems to add to paint durability as well.
Tt makes sense. We lose heat based on the temperature difference between the house and the outside. If the phase change is at the right temperature, this measure can help prevent the house from losing heat from overheating. However, I think it depends on how we heat the house.
I think the tests would've been more interesting with some thermal mass in the box, such as a soda bottle full of water (water wouldn't have a phase change at the temperatures in question here, so it shouldn't skew that part of the experiment). Air itself doesn't have much thermal mass, and *any* draft would have a significant effect on that small box. Styrofoam insulation board would also be interesting to have in the test! Edit: It would be interesting to sandwitch the phase change material between two layers of insulation, as I think that would help offsetting the indoor temperature from the temperature the phase change material does most of it's magic.
Very cool, thanks for telling us about it. Would not use in the walls unless like you said doing a remodel and replacing sheet rock. Would be worth it in the attic.
One of the really interesting things about PCMs is when they give up their heat (begin to refreeze) they do so at largely one temperature IE very near their PCT (Phase Change Temperature). Meaning, the PCM is always going to be slightly warmer than ambient and the surrounding areas when dew point temps are reached. So while condensation is technically possible, it is highly unlikely
Hey Ricky. Amazing video. I really love when a new ground breaking product can be introduced. Especially when it's already market available and not still in the testing phase. I've been looking at adding an exterior layer of insulation to retrofit my house. Based on your research would you recommend this as an additional layer that could be sandwiched between the insulation and original house exterior? Are there ADDITIONAL potential installation issues such as being to prone to punctures as you mentioned, that would make it not viable for this application? Also is there a performance difference between placing the material between the rockwool and drywall vs the rockwool and the house sheathing (plywood)? THX
Placement of the material is a primary focus. PCMs are used to best effect when they communicate with the heat source. So..In a mostly cooling environment you will want to place the material closer to the outside surface(siding) with your insulation layer between it and the conditioned space. The PCM will absorb and reduce the delta across your insulation layer during the melting phase then follow the path of least resistance(back to the outside (ambient) when it gives it up and refreezes. In areas where heating is primary, the heat source would be the conditioned space. Placement would be inside the sheet rock with the insulation toward the outside (ambient). excess heat from furnace or fireplace that is otherwise lost will then be intercepted by the PCM, then when the heat source is turned down in the evening, and the temp in the room reaches the PCT, it will give the heat up back to the room keeping it moderated for hours
I would love to see Ricky get his roof painted white with the new product that Purdue University has developed that reflects over 99% of the sun's rays. Supposedly it can reduce AC costs by 90%. I am moving to AZ in a few years and am very interested in this new technology...
I live in a place where the temperature can range from roughly 30-40 in the day to 10-20 at night (In Celsius for international purposes), so this would be super useful!
I wonder if there is any benefit in my climate (-35c to -20c in the winter, +30c to +20c in the summer? NW Ontario Canada. Seems there would be no phase change in either extreme!
@@alcocklake Hard to say if it would be useful in your climate. It might help during the summer maybe, but if the temperature doesn't change between too hot and too cold within a 24h time span I doubt it would be super useful.
@@alcocklake are you saying summer is day 30C night 20C? Or is that the range of day temperatures? If that is the day night swing it's probably not enough. He was talking about a range of 17C or more. And it would be no good at all for the winter. You probably just need really really thick insulation for those mega cold winters. Once you have that you'll probably be fine in the sumer too.
Having a latent heat thermal battery such as this as a thin layer wall cladding means you won’t need electricity, due to the large surface area that can absorb energy, but adds complexity and cost. Having a latent heat thermal battery plastic tank in your crawl space, with a air-to-liquid heat pump a.k.a air conditioner to charge it will store a lot more heat, and is serviceable. The electricity will be free by solar.
At room temp about 300 joules are needed to raise the temp of one gram of water to boiling point. It'll then take another 539 joules to evaporate that water. Nearly 2x as much heat for the phase change vs the temperature rise
What was the melt point temp of the material you used? I’m familiar with a house in Colorado that used a similar product. They have to open windows everyday, even in the winter, to cool the house. It is critical you select the right melting point for the PCM. Once installed you have to live with your decision. Not much real world data exists. I’ve run basic tests on it and in general my results were the same as yours. It smoothed out the curve. And as you said the temperature must move across the melt point which may not happen on a residential interior. I’m considering an exterior application with a 32 degree set point in Colorado. Almost everyday the winter temperatures move across freezing. For San Diego I would think an attic installation would work well for heat moderation. Make sure you engineer structure for the added weight. Good luck!
Yes, the house in Colorado does indeed have to open windows in winter because it is kept too warm by the PCM and solar hot water. (the only time the furnace has come on EVER was when the solar water pump failed). When the house was built, 78f was the only melt point option worked out. and of course 78f is way too hot for a house at over 8000' elevation. Still, you can't argue that opening the windows isn't a better option than $1000 per month propane bill..
@@garygray-fx1ho Good to know. I was using ENRG Blankets from Phase Change Solutions/PhaseStor. I was actually testing a heating product, WarmFloor, from Step Heat, a 24 volt heating mat that is solar compatible. I was testing to see if during the day I could use solar panels (direct connection, no controllers, no batteries) to power the heating mat in a crawlspace with PCM placed on top. The heat from the WarmFloor mat PCM would melt during the day and solidify during the night releasing the heat. I tested other "mass" options for storing the heat. Result: In a crawlspace, with weight not being an issue, a cement paving stone worked almost as well as the PCM.
I’m curious, you mentioned it would be great in florida, but also that it needs a big variance in temperature to be the most efficient. I’m in florida, and it seems like 8-10 months of the year our temperature is from the low 70’s at night to the low 90’s during the day. Would that be enough of a variance? It seemed like you mentioned a 30-40 degree variance in your area.
Seems to me the volume of "phase insulator" used would be correlated to the volume of air it insulates. I.e. When you scale this to a larger size building without "cubing" or increase the thickness of the insulator results might differ. 🤔
True, Understanding your load and placement is critical but remember in retro applications your issue will be controlling the delta across the existing r values. In terms of real performance it is quite easy to reduce the delta to the point the performance value of the insulation layer is several times higher than stated R Value.
Interesting. Just picking up on your comment to use this above rockwool insulation in an attic. This metalised sheet will act as a moisture barrier so won't you get condensation problems from the warm moist air rising through the ceiling? I was advised against using a similar looking but bubble wrap metalised sheet above my rockwool insulation by the manufacturer for this reason. They said if anywhere it should be under the insulation on the topside of the plasterboard and sealed. But then that wouldn't work with the phase change as it would always be at internal room temperature. I suppose the solution would be to first have a moisture barrier then rockwool then phase change insulation which would be ok as there would not be any moist air rising through the rockwool.
I have the pleasure of having the cell company putting a cell tower in my back yard(within 100yards). I now have RA. I’ve mitigated most of it by installing a metal roof on a barn that’s between my house and the tower. Just as a selling point, I could see your product as a way of blocking unwanted EMF from unwanted towers?
FWIW, back in the early days of life in the Southwest, adobe structures used the thermal mass to do similar things. Sun would heat the adobe during the day, and the thermal mass allowed the adobe (up to twelve inches thick) to heat up gradually, but kept the interior cool during the day. At night, the energy would continue to "percolate" inward, and provided warmth during the night. A passive system that worked quite well.
Do not rely on this video for accurate phase change information. While the product information is correct, the terms he uses to talk about the absorption and release of energy are often the opposite of what they actually would be under the conditions described. As long as you don't care about the scientific aspect, it's a great presentation.
Phase change is a great technology. For home insulation it can use night time cold to cool things during the day. Or day time heat to heat at night. But if daytime doesn’t get warmer or nighttime doesn’t get cool then this is not going to be useful. I’m sure there is some climates this is great in but it will be very niche.
laying PCM rolls over rockwool insulation over ceilings looks like it would create a vapor barrier on the wrong side of the insulation material leading to interstitial condensation unless there happens to be a previously installed vapour barrier behind the ceiling drywall.
"Oh, so a thermal battery with a customized, engineered temperature range, and impressive volumetric thermal load? Know what? I'll check it out" *Sees the price* "Well, I'll just see myself out. Have fun."
This heat trapping system would be well suited to places where it's hot (or at least sunny) during the day and then cool in the evenings; evenings where it would be nice to have a bit of the day's warmth in the house. Would it be of any use where the ambient temperature is constantly too hot for comfort - like in hot and humid environments?
No… it needs that charge discharge cycle to be worthwhile. You would benefit just as much from a radiant barrier which is super cheap but does need to go inside walls which isn’t
@@TwoBitDaVinci I've heard of an idea in Israel (similar weather to San Diego) - where there is a outside wall in your house that faces the sun during the day, absorbing heat, and then, in the evening, the actual wall is rotated so the warm side faces inwards. This phase shift material would work really well in that scenario since more heat would be absorbed per unit area - more than just heating up a solid layer of bricks/stucco.
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not. The problem with this insulation if we ignore the foil is it doesn't work as an insulator, so once it's warmed up or cooled down it basically useless. The main time this would be an issue is in winter, it might get a bit warmer during the day, but it's going to remain constantly cold not allowing the stuff to re solidify. This could also happen durin prolonged hot periods when it doesn't cool down significantly at night. Also it will have a rather specific temperature range it's suited for, meaning if it's hotter or colder than normal weather where you live and outside the design temperature it's never going to go through the state change. I could be wrong and they somehow design for this with multiple materials with different melting points in layers or something.
The object is to pick the specific temperature melt point for the enveironment and the placement in the building. These choices will be based on a number of criterion. Such as Whether it is largely a heating or cooling area, daytime and diurnal overnight lows, sunlit surface temps, any available R value, and others. You are also correct that in order for the IR reflector to work it needs an air gap. If one is not available in the assembly, the reflector will not work, However it may be that the low emissivity surface can be utilized to ensure refreezing. There is a pretty simple formula for determining the amount of PCM necessary for an application. QE Platinum will happily share it with you so you can determine Where to place and how much QE Platinum needed for a specific application.
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*Corrections/Clarifications Below
- When hot outside, the material melts and absorbs energy keeping your room from getting as warm.
- When cold outside, the material freezes and releases energy warming up your room.
- I had the energy and temperature axes labeled incorrectly they should be switched! Temp on the Y axis, and energy on the X.
Unless there are alterations to pressure, after the ice melts the water warms and there is no longer any cooling.
Could put the kiwi on the south and west facing walls/roof where the sun is most punishing for best ROI.
Have you ever analyzed the NASA-derived ceramic bead paint additive? Could you do a video on it?
I find it works extremely well, wish I had added it to my ceiling paint.
It seems to add to paint durability as well.
Do we have an estimate as to how that might impact the R-value assemblies?
One inverter to two or four panels makes a lot of sense. Everyone seems to love Enphase, one-to-one, but they're so expensive. You can save a lot by going the way you did. I was considering APsystems for my solar system as they have a very similar solution.
Rally interested in how this works for you. The costs of building new construction are insane still. Being able to pull long term savings is more important than just being environmentally positive. Cutting back on other monthly costs is a need for the average family.
In the first graph, the units of the two axes should be swapped. Temperature at phase change doesn’t change but energy does. Interesting material!
I was about to make the same comment.
Thank you. He needs to add a message about that.
Yep, that was a pretty significant error.
I wondered about that too. Very interesting and informative video, nonetheless.
He drew the graph and talked about it as if they were swapped and I got confused for a second
The radiant barrier is an insulator, but phase change isn't insulation, it's energy storage.
True. But the energy storage has a (small?) insulation effect by keeping the temperature of the material the same temperature as your house, thus limiting the heat exchange between the two.
@@RobertLBarnard yeah makes more sense to have phase change material inside the house in areas you want to fight temperature shifts
Hi. I watched your video and I think you should do one more test. On temperature chart we don't see the "phase change" horizontal line on chart, you explained at 6:10. This extra insulation you added = a lot of extra mass in one test environment. If you weight it and put an equivalent water bottle to other box you will see similar gains. Only such comparison can give credits to such "phase change" invention.
There was a builder in Wheaton, Illinois back in the mid 80s, who built high-end homes with ultra low energy use. He dabbled with phase change technologies. I’ve been waiting to see that technology go mainstream ever since, and now it looks like we may be only a few years away. It’s about time!
I'm considering making myself a van, and I reckon this kind of material would be perfect there because I'm limited on how much solar I can install on it. In a small space like that the price also is less of a concern, and every last bit of efficiency makes a huge difference.
Now your question is what temperature range do I design for? Desert conditions or arctic conditions like in Canada. Noooo!
@@skidaddledude1997 I think a comment above can solve the question, have 2 layers installed in the van. One with a melting point of 15C and another with melting point of 25C. This way you can ensure a phrase change for most weather band widths
I have exactly the same use in mind, only using a bread van/tiny home approach.
Perhaps 1/4" of glued in Styrofoam and then a layer of phase change material for cold , with another 1/4" Styrofoam and then another layer for heat, and then your finish paneling. $1000 to $!250 ought to do all surfaces including the floor. A small AC and a mini wood stove should cover most locations.
I'm going to put in a suggestion on the 'Project Farm' channel to test this material in a future show. He does some really good tests on a variety of products.
He said the material goes on the outside. How are you supposed to tape these things on the outside of a van?
@@allocater2 Not to mention how hot exterior metal would be in summer. That's why I thought a 1/4" of Styrofoam on the inside to slow the incoming heat. Then the first layer of phase change material.
I can't see any other way, as it seems pointless to tape directly to the metal wall skin on the inside or outside.
Maybe someone has a better idea?
I've been following this for a while. It's cool that it's getting used more. I've seen another version of the technology that uses a tank. Basically it functions like a heat pump, with pipes running through it circulating a coolant/heating agent. Something like that could be used with thermal solar to even more heat for the night. Imagine a system where your photovoltaic cells are cooled, for maximum efficiency, and the waste heat was stored in a tank to heat the house during the night.
There is a famous kind of wall art that has a lot of boards sticking out for it, sort of like a maze. When I saw this I thought if you you could design something like that with this in it's core you could have a lot of passive heat exchange because of all the surface area.
I think the wall version could probably work between studs. You'd lose a little space at the stud, but I think that would be okay. (Much lower tech, but have you seen T-Studs? They are an all wood product that creates a lot less thermal bridging than normal stud construction by running two studs at right angles with a gap between them. They are connected by dowels and you blow insulation in between them. Your only points of contact are the dowels.
As someone who has been trained as a chemist and a love of science, I found this very interesting. Thank you!
This sounds like a great solution for winterized RVs, especially for people who use them as their permanent residence.
I have something very similar on top of my wood stove - a large pot of parafin wax. When the fire is going it melts the wax (absorbs heat) and when the fire dies down it releases the stored energy as heat as it solidifies. Same principle in action.
Not a bad idea! I hate how poorly wood stoves keep places warm at night - the old stone chimney hearts used to help immensely be releasing heat all night. Near room temp Phase change material like coconut oil, sodium sulphate hydrate or parrafin wax helps do that job while being much lighter for the same energy storage
The units for the graph should be swapped!
At the phase change temperature is the same. The energy rises at the same temperature
@@chiliphil64 I think he means that the energy input is constantly increasing (x-axis) but temperature stays constant at phase change temperatures (y-axis). The way he drew the dashed line, the y axis is temperature and the x-axis is energy input.
The QE Platinum would REALLY make sense in the upper-Midwest especially for attic use if your attic is part of the "conditioned space" in the home. If they make it in standard roll widths (12, 16, 24" on center) and the "pouches" about 12" long it could be stapled right to the bottom of the roof rafters to hold your insulation up against the roof decking. It would also help enormously with air infiltration if you tape the seams. Ricky, I suspect THAT will make a huge difference in your house renovation, just getting to a point where your house would pass a blower door test.
What good would a phase change "insulation" be in the upper midwest where it is cold day and night in the winter. It would freeze and stay frozen, offering little resistance to heat transfer.
@@pauleohl True not so much in the winter, that's why our furnaces run damn near 24/7 from Halloween to Memorial Day. During the summer they'd be good at reducing the use of air conditioners though.
@@michiganengineer8621 Only if it cools off enough at night to change the phase back to solid.
@@incognitotorpedo42 Even in summer the nights are usually cool enough to make that shift. _HOWEVER,_ Unless that price tag comes down DRASTICALLY it's just going to be a toy for the rich.
@@michiganengineer8621 Considering that traditional insulation is mandatory for the winter, where would you put the phase change material? And what is your logic for how it would work? For the sake of this discussion, let's say that removing and replacing drywall is not an issue.
You should make it clear that phase change material is only useful in locations where the temperature swings across the melting point/desired temperature: In the days it’s hotter than desired and the excess energy melts the material.
For instance in Minnesota in the winter, days are much warmer than nights, but there’s never excess heat to melt the material.
It’s best in desert climates where the nights are cold and the days are hot.
At 2:55 Ricky mentions that the product is customizable. I wonder if it would make sense to use two customizations in the same wall. For example if it is possible to make the freezing/melting point 15C or at 25C, would layers of the two combined help keep the house more temperate than using a single larger layer tuned to 20C?
Well, not necessarily just in deserts. It depends on the material and at what specific temperature it changes pahse, so you would probably just need a daily temperature delta that's pronounced enough and a material that changes phase within that delta for it to work.
@@From_Heller I didn’t mean just deserts, but the swing has to cross “room temperature “. A place like Miami in the summer or Minnesota in the winter are not helped.
After spinning it in my head for a couple of minutes, I think you are probably right about the "crossing room temperature" constraint... I didn't take it into account and was just focused on the material properties :)
Heating and cooling are "your largest energy bills"? Well, no... in total, the biggest energy consumer is transportation.
Thanks a lot for sharing this. Definitely sounds very interesting. If you could make a video on how you plan to seal your house so air drafts don't constantly move in and out, but still maintaining some sort of fresh air input so the house doesn't get stuffy or have stale air, it would be very helpful to me.
_Hey Ricky. The way you drew the water heating graph, Energy should be on the x axis and Temperature on the y axis... or you should draw the line differently given the way you labelled the axes._
we not only use PCM in wall and ceiling, but also put in floor heating to save energy. This do increase thermal comfort and purely passive way. very smart material 😃😀
ohh yeah.... we even eat it so that we can act as a bio-airconditioner.....
6:15 In case of water, the "stays flat for a while" is a really long while at 100 °C. Heating 1 kg of water from 0 °C to 100 °C takes about 418 kJ. Boiling 1 kg of water from 100 °C to 101 °C takes about 2247 kJ (or 5 times more than getting it from zero to hundred).
Last year a bunch of power lines were pulled down, dominoes effect. We live in a 3rd floor apartment and Maryland summers are pretty hot. We just got done many triple digits in two weeks. Being poor and disabled jumping up to leave is not in the cards.
I saw a video on PCMs cool packs that could save your life. Nighthawkinlight, was the channel, he has different ones. I made the one that used sodium sulfate. They work great. I made them soaking pieces of fleece in and sealing in space storage bags. I even gave some to my nephew as a police officer in vest he can't really do the over the shoulder cool packs. But sitting on them helps.
I am so happy to see insulation being made.
I now think homes need to go cave like for the heat coming.
I'd like to see bales of straw soaked in the one used for homes and shrink wrapped in reflective foil. Build straw bale homes with them and cob the outside. And somehow add 90% shade cloth over a few feet past the home roof to keep the area right around the home cooler. Use various percentages of shade cloth over kids play areas, gardens. We are just going to have to change the way we look at it. Comfort and less power needed to stay cool or warm over a perfect looking home and garden.
To help my 3rd floor apartment, I make foam board inserts that help tremendously but we get the sun from sunrise to 130ish, for hours...
You can feel the heat from the walls. So afraid now to even stay at 78f because once power goes out it heat us super quick during the day.
Apartment complexes need to use thermal paint to help people with their heating and cooling costs. Because I don't think using thermal paint inside would help much.
This sounds great, I well understand the concept having done fractional distillation. My only concern is here in Australia during the Global Financial Crises, Our Labour government did world beating moves to keep our economy going by spending on benefit programs. One was a massive subsidy on home insulation, aluminum insulation was one rushed out and several people were electrocuted because of the rush. I will check out this for my place and see if it is available.
glad to see you recognizing AC coupled microinverters. whoa! Personally I'm team Enphase but its good to have competition in the market. Keep up the great work!
I like the idea of lining walls with phase change material... Oh thats exactly what you are talking about, I'm not even kidding I was writing the comment while listening and was like "yeh insolation is cool and all, but... Oh well yeh that XD." Thing I think other people haven't thought of yet is using this on solar panels though because solar panels operate more efficiently at lower temperatures, but they are black and out in the sun... so... but you put this stuff on the back with a melting point of like 30C or something and it can store the relatively cool temps of night for the day to cool the solar panels and this stuff isn't expensive to make so increasing your solar panel efficiency by 15% or so and also increasing their longevity is not a bad deal.
Living near Phoenix & I need to reinsulate my attic sometime soon, I will legitimately look into this stuff. I got two ACs for this place, the less I use them the better lol.
Better test might be to frame out a wall with plywood backing, and every two studs change the insulation material, then enclose it with sheet rock (or just another piece of plywood), then just point a thermal camera at it (This is me assuming that you doing what you do, you already have one). To simulate indoor/outdoor just prop it at a 45* angle somewhere exposed to the sun and point the camera at the under side. You could of course make the box more elaborate, but the thermal camera should be a very accurate comparison/measurement, and putting them all in one wall controls for different levels of exposure as long as the whole wall gets equal sun.
Thank you for making this video! I've been pondering this idea in the past year and I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one curious about this!
Very exciting Ricky!
Almost as exciting as tonight's Tesla Investor Day 2023 presentations! 🤪
Question below.
But first, It seems this new "insulation" is great as it takes advantage of the delta-T between night and day. I realize you said they have custom formulations for different regions. BUT, WHAT do you THINK is better; a region with greater delta-T like some deserts 🏜 with 60° Temp swings, OR more modest areas like SD where your swing in Temp is more gentle? 🤔
So my QUESTION is: would you still want to install a "flash coat" of spray foam in your wall before applying this on the inside toward the sheet rock? My thought is that with a 1-2" flash coat I would not only improve my Air & Vapor Control layer and prevent dewpoint condensation between my in/outside walls but it would also keep the thermal exchange benefits closer to the living space...? Your thoughts?
Cheers, Eric
I would consider this material for radiators . On a south wall thermal panels collect heat and transfer it to radiators inside a house during winter, in summer you run the system in revers during nights to cool a house
Your vids are great! Thanks for contributing. One suggestion:
How about redo-ing the heat energy vs temp chart so you don't confuse your viewers... The temp of ice stays at 0C while absorbing more and more heat until it all melts, and so forth...
this is a really cool technology, if you think about it, it functions more as a heat sink and less as insulation, but that's actually really useful, because not only is it blocking heat from outside, it would also pull heat from inside, people,electronics,lights,fridges and dryers, all produce heat that it would pull and slowly release later on.
I appreciate the fact that you actually tested the setup, and those tests clearly shows the advantages. I wonder how they made it, do you have any further information?
I am AMAZED by how poorly the rock wool was installed. A properly insulated wall starts with caulking the joints between studs and plywood/particle board. The insulation bats are trimmed to allow a bit of spring while installing, assuring a slight pressure against studs and walls.
I added an aluminum vapour barrier as I use radiant heating.
I would like to see how this product functions in addition to a properly installed insulation.
"I would like to see how this product functions in addition to a properly installed insulation." - I think that's the way it's meant to be used, never on its own. Remember, the manufacturer simplifies their explanation and always presents the best case scenario. But in the real world, the situation is a bit more complex.
The phase-change material (henceforth PCM) will absorb heat from the sun during the day, using it to fuel its melt. Unlike the sun in the manufacturer's presentations, though, the real one is not so considerate to stop shining the moment your PCM has fully liquefied. And at that point, the PCM can no longer absorb excess heat efficiently and becomes useless. You can retard the moment at which this happens by adding classical insulation: the more heat you keep away from the PCM, the less it needs to absorb, and the slower it "runs out".
At night, assuming the outside temperature falls below the melting point, the PCM will solidify, and release its stored energy. Once all the material has solidified, it becomes useless again. Assuming the PCM is your only means of insulation, most of its stored energy is simply released into the atmosphere. But assuming decent insulation, it becomes harder to release to the outside, and most of the stored energy gets released to the inside of the house instead.
But what about high summer or the dead of winter? Well, I don't know where you live, but where I live, the temperature ranges for summer and winter don't overlap, which means there is no viable phase change temperature that would work in both seasons. So a choice has to be made. If we optimise for summer, then the material becomes useless in winter. If we optimise for winter, it becomes useless in summer. So we need a solution for the season in which the material does not contribute. And again, classical insulation is the answer here.
So no matter what the situation, proper insulation is the base on top of which one might opt to install this for additional comfort and/or decreased climate control bills.
Very interesting, we live in middle Georgia and think this could be a big benefit for us, especially if all we have to do is lay it on top of the current insulation. That makes it a DIY project.
Seems like its worth experimenting with.
where?
I am in Atlanta and have spray foam in my attic. Before spray foam the attic temperature could be 120 degrees in summer. After spray foam never higher than 90 degrees. It cost about $7000 to install. It makes a big difference in electricity bills. Looks like this other material might be more efficient but more costly.
@@atlantasailor1
It would be really interesting to see your test compared to 2" closed cell spray foam, and for a cost comparison of the different methods at a typical home scale.
when i get ready to rip out the drywall and do this, you bet!
phase change material and spray foam are different materials for different purposes.
spray foam is an insulation material, slowing down the heat exchange between inside and outside. it does not store heat.
phase change material, on the other hand, stores heat but it does not provide insulation, IOW it does not slow down the heat exchange.
if you don't have insulation, i don't see the point of phase change material, because PCM will not affect how much heat is lost.
what i would do if my numbers came up is make sure that the house is really well insulated and then add some phase change material.
@@mrxmry3264 Properly installed closed cell spray foam is also an air and vapor barrier, something those other froms of insulation don't do (well, maybe the PCM, but it depends on how it's installed and if the edges are all bonded). I suspect PCM is great for places with daily temperature swings above and below comfortable temperatures (e.g. deserts), but not as useful in cold climates.
@@mrxmry3264 The object of the PCM is to control the heat by absorbing it and then discharging (desorbing) it. The benefit is controlling peak temperatures and the delta across an insulating layer.. Imagine a 72 degree thermostat setting, with an R 20 of glass or some other insulation then air attic air temp of 140. What you have in this example is a 68degree delta across the insulation layer (140/72=68) Now lay a 3/8" blanket of PCM on top that stays at or near its phase change temperature of say 82f. What you have done is controlled the delta across the insulation layer. Dropping the temperature difference from 68 degrees to 10. An R 20 is much more likely to give satisfactory results when dealing with a 10 degree delta than a 68 degree. This is appropriate for largely cooling environments.
@@TwoBitDaVinci
Appreciate it, Ricky.
8:39 you’re testing the concept! Awesome!! Great video
Well, ir may be good as retrofit,but for a new house I'd simply build the way I did. Concrete slab in the ground floor as well as first floor provide excellent heat accumulation. Aircrete walls polystyrene wall insulation, triple pane glass and thick rockwool roof insulation complete it, giving the house then properties you were wishfully talking about. I'm planning a next house to be earth-covered though, that's really the highest level in terms of temperature control.
I saw a good video on earth covered houses by an engineer. He said the extra engineering and structural support, and the extra maintenance you need rarely offset the savings. He said a thicker wall is a better solution, unless you have a tight lot and no other place to put your lawn.
A breakthrough I'm watching is aerogel filled windows. Windows, even triple glazed heat reflecting, still are always going to be your weak point. Aerogel has such insanely high R values per inch though that it can give them a fighting chance. The trick is to make the aerogel clear enough, solar degradation resistant, and affordable.
@@nacoran Of course, if you have a link or name, I'd appreciate it :-). But it's a bit strange, earth covered house should be maintenance free, not the opposite. I'm talking about real earth covered house, not a "green roof", which is a kind of fashion these days. As for structural point, we in Europe already build houses from materials, that are able to bear quite a load. Concrete houses are no exceptions, and it's not more expensive, than our other options. As well as insulation - we insulate houses a lot anyways. Of course, earth-covered house is still a bit more expensive, primarily due to unique design procedures and very important and costly water proofing. If a design and/or construction of an earth covered house is underestimated, then it turns into nightmare, that's totally true. But it should be done in a way that it will last hundreds of years without touching anything else but things like appliences.
I don't know about aerogel, I have quite doubts about it, but time will tell :-). My tripple pane windows filled with Argon gas are doing quite good job, I'd say. I mean most of houses didn't even get to that point of effectiveness, even here in Europe. Any financially feasible solution is appreciated, of course.
Great video, just a little comment about your graph, put Temp on vertical axis, because moving to the right implies constant energy and an increase in temperature.
This material has potential as a simple thermal battery type of system even without being included as part of a building's construction. It still ultimately comes down to the thermal mass and heat carrying capacity of it, same as it would for water or sand. The larger bonus comes from it's ability to hold temperature closer to it's phase change threshold, enhancing comfort near that setpoint.
A Burnout hot drink tumbler uses a similar material to maintain heat via the same process, both by quickly cooling off hot liquids to a drinkable temperature, and by maintaining a drinkable hot temperature range for hours after that. (I highly recommend it over an Ember, which will eventually fail and be unrepairable garbage in 3-5 years.)
Agreed. I looked into the cost of it and was soured immediately for retrofitting. It may make more sense in new construction, but I quit doing the math at that point.
@James Karrie Actually it can make some sense for many older homes with poor air infiltration control that experience more rapid heat gain and loss in less extreme environments. But even in my 1901 built home, I don't see that penciling out in my favor for decades.
@James Karrie There is some debate over the efficacy of completely sealing older homes like mine without rehabbing the siding with a wrap or otherwise. It was built to shed water and breathe. Making the siding air tight risks trapping moisture and creating an environment for rot that is simply not an issue at all for it now (except for exterior window sills when the paint has failed). I'm sure it's possible if done right, but 122 years of avoiding rot so far is a tough record to buck.
1. It seems it doesn’t necessary to use the termostatic material the same as isolation. It can be located anywhere inside of the area. It can be even cheeper not to spread it over walls surface, but have just a volume with pipes connected to AC or a fan. It can work just the same as AC connected cooling/heating pipes underground.
2. The phase change temperature should be close to what you want to be inside. It intuitively seems most efficient.
We used a similar method to keep medical drugs at a steady temperature inside a refrigerator and freezer compartments. Worked well as the drugs were in the middle of a thermal case.
2BDV- Your roof is a solar installers dream. Only a flat commercial flat roof would be easier. You could have installed the racking yourself if you wanted to.
Thank you for sharing this, I am keenly interested in this product. HOWEVER... to address the major issue you had in your testing, you didn't install any vapor barrier or house wrap. So yes, there is going to be a lot of air leakage and not just testing for ambient temperatures.
Idea for that company: Manufacture vinyl or aluminum siding with that built into it. I imagine if one were to install siding on top of it, it would be very tricky to prevent nails from being driven through it.
Three options not mentioned: 1) heating or cooling can be applied inside the wall to directly store that heat or coolth so the heating or cooling is only needed when the sun is shining (solar input) 2) some drywall companies have an option of beads filled with phase change material inside the gypsum part of the drywall 3) different temperature phase change material can be used on the top or bottom of the room depending on if the material is for cooling mode or heating mode.
Regarding 2) do you have experience with them? Or does these products have authentic public reviews by construction companies, individual owners, etc?
Could you please share such products and company names?
I'd be interested in doing some research about such products in the EU / Europe.
@@1dayUllC I had seen at least 3 companies proposing such products but I found an article about it and apparently, none of these products were successful and are no longer marketed. An alternative idea is to place pcm materials between two layers of normal drywall... pcm materials expand and contract significantly so that has to be taken into consideration. I have plans but no experience.
Also, there are several brands of thick flexible glue used for sound blocking by putting this glue between two sheets of normal drywall. This could be used between the pcm packets for both sound deadening and thermal storage.
@@AnnVole
Appreciate your help and update.
@@1dayUllC Some product names to check include "Knauf Comfortboard", "National Gypsum's ThermalCORE", and "Micronal PCM"
Wow...thank you for bringing this material to light...will be awesome when the big box stores start carrying this to allow for better costs to DIY type folks...I hope. Lol
Lowes is looking at carrying it
That is amazing! I'm defiantly going to use this in my tiny home.
I fully intend to add this to my house and as I renovate I will add to each outside wall
Certainly sounds very interesting. For those of us who experience a big range between summer and winter temperatures, how would they optimize the composition? It all comes down to how much this could save in a particular region compared with the capital cost.
This material works on daily temperature differences. It does nothing for seasonal differences. During the day it absorbs heat, during the night it releases heat. All the while (ideally) keeping the temperature of inside of your house, so no heat is exchanged between the inside and the material.
That's an interesting concept for a Thermal barrier. I wonder if we would have to have dual or triple phase change layers where I live. Have each layer phase change at a different temperature. It goes from -33 to 45 C where I live. Or -28 to 115 F..... The extremes on both ends of the spectrum throughout the year. Sounds like cool stuff.
Imagine what happens to our climate when all that phase changing material at the north and south pole and on top of mountains is taken past 32F/0C.
Thank you. I saw this product a few months ago. Brilliant stuff.
It is a curious product, much more experimentation needed.
What would be a cool thing to experiment with it on?
I think this is going to be a game changer
now this would be great for some climate zones as mentioned. But like what they are doing for attics is top tier. Just roll it out. But Id like to add one further which is helping to air seal without removing the current insulation and lay it on the joists. I use a radient barrier and it really helps in the summer for our climate zone 3 and since the jet stream is getting all out of wack because of global warming, products like this to regulate tempature will help to reduce load on the grid. but shading in your climate zone further is needed with the use of proper insulation.
Very cool. I’m planning on insulating the attic with 2-inch rigid foam insulation between rafters with 1-inch space between the underside and the insulation for ventilating the shingles. Makes no sense to have an uninsulated attic especially in regions where the contractor installs the air-handler in the attic.
Living in LA, this seems like a great product!!!
I live in a termite area so I'm scared of covering up my wood for when I inspect it; I would want a way to easily install and uninstall it, so I can easily inspect my attic.
My biggest concern would be condensation. Exterior envelope design is a constant balancing act between thermal regulation, air infiltration, and moisture resistance. Water getting trapped somewhere in a wall and not being able to dry out is a recipe for disaster. So I worry about how much this product sweats during a phase change. If it's radiating heat while the air around it is cooling, then condensation within the wall sounds inevitable. Which isn't necessarily a dead end, but allowing drainage for that water and evaporative airflow over it will require a very specific wall design. I wouldn't be comfortable casually swapping this in on a wall original designed for batts or rigid.
Good to hear about these new technologies Wonder if this would be good for a passive home design.
Amazing info & Thank-you for the incredible episode. 😄
Big question:
(example values used here only to convey the question)
Say the material melts between 20 and 30 degrees (C). Then solidifies below 20.
It is 20 degrees and it is getting warmer/hotter.
It gets to 30 degrees and continues to get warmer/hotter.
Inside the building when the external temperature goes above 20 the insulation starts to melt and so "phase changes" and the heat is not conveyed inside the building.
As the temperature gets to 30 and STAYS that way for .... 10 HOURS, the insulation would have melted by then.
What happens to the heat there after?
The insulation can't "keep melting" and so would either turn to gas, or transmit the heat through the wall.
If it turns to gas: How much expansion happens? (Eg: balloons. Water turning to steam. MASSIVE increase in volume).
This type of insulation would have a maximum time for effectiveness. Beyond that it wouldn't work as described.
If you would like to have "free" heating and cooling and you have mechanical ventilation installed. Then use the ground.
I live in Sweden and we have both cold winters and warm summers. We use the metrical system so forgive me for not using the imperial system here.
I ran across a clever guy that had constructed a system where he took all the incoming air to the house via two 200 mm 25 m long each plastic ground pipes. He dugg them down into the ground below the freezing level and filled up around the pipes with clay dirt closest to the pipes. This gave the best thermal conductivity.
During the winter he measure +2 degrees Celsius at the inlet in the house after 2 weeks with constant outside temperature of about -20 Celsius.
In the summer he measure an inlet temperature of about +17 to +18 degrees Celsius when it is about +25 to +30 degrees Celsius outside.
The cost for this is the installation cost and then the cost for driving his ordinary mechanical ventilation which is not a great cost at all and also often is there anyway.
See to it that you put good enough space between the two pipes and also dimension them so that the airspeed through the pipes are slow enough for the air to conduct the temperature from the surrounding ground.
I’m a retired general contractor/building inspector/plans examiner/chief building official & Director of Building and Safety Department, and your comment about gray water collection caught my attention. I wish I could have worked another decade or two, so that I could have encouraged city and county governments to accept alternative methods and materials, including separated plumbing systems that allowed reuse of gray water. Have you investigated the current restrictions on gray water use in your city?
Thank you so much for your review! One thing not accurate however is it is not soy. It is a hydrated salt complex.
I love your videos! Its cool to keep up w the newer stuff.
So simple; yet such a game changer
i think the graph you made to explain the temperature and phase changes with respect to energy changes, inverted between the axes and their ordinates
Might be good for your area where the average temp (ground temp?) is 70F or so. Maybe not so good for other climes. Once it changes to the wrong phase, how much do you need to pay to change it back? What if it stays warm for a while? Or cold? There's a reason we don't build houses with foot-thick solid walls anymore.
The material goes "dead" when it permanently stays cold. It also goes "dead" when it permanently stays hot. It only works if the day is hot and the night is cold. I.e. desert climates.
How does humidity work with that phase change insulation . Would that affect installation in different climate zones . High humidity affects where the vapor barrier is located aluminum foil is clearly a vapor barrier as well as radiant barrier. Dew point at at 67-75 can collect a great deal of moisture, inside of a wall moisture becomes a death sentence for structural components. Is that probability figured out foam insulated SIPs had issues with that.
Could put the kiwi on the south and west facing walls/roof where the sun is most punishing for best ROI.
Have you ever analyzed the NASA-derived ceramic bead paint additive? Could you do a video on it?
I find it works extremely well, wish I had added it to my ceiling paint.
It seems to add to paint durability as well.
Another AWESOME VID. Where have u been,haven't see u that much?
Tt makes sense. We lose heat based on the temperature difference between the house and the outside. If the phase change is at the right temperature, this measure can help prevent the house from losing heat from overheating. However, I think it depends on how we heat the house.
I think the tests would've been more interesting with some thermal mass in the box, such as a soda bottle full of water (water wouldn't have a phase change at the temperatures in question here, so it shouldn't skew that part of the experiment).
Air itself doesn't have much thermal mass, and *any* draft would have a significant effect on that small box.
Styrofoam insulation board would also be interesting to have in the test!
Edit:
It would be interesting to sandwitch the phase change material between two layers of insulation, as I think that would help offsetting the indoor temperature from the temperature the phase change material does most of it's magic.
Very cool, thanks for telling us about it. Would not use in the walls unless like you said doing a remodel and replacing sheet rock. Would be worth it in the attic.
Be careful. Depending on where you live, the foil might accumulate condensation and ruin your wood structural framework.
One of the really interesting things about PCMs is when they give up their heat (begin to refreeze) they do so at largely one temperature IE very near their PCT (Phase Change Temperature). Meaning, the PCM is always going to be slightly warmer than ambient and the surrounding areas when dew point temps are reached. So while condensation is technically possible, it is highly unlikely
@@garygray-fx1ho Interesting 🤔! Makes sense. Do you have experience using these for insulations?
i worry that condensation could become an issue. I didn't hear that covered, but I'll look into it more.
Can't wait for updates on your real world experience with it
Hey Ricky. Amazing video. I really love when a new ground breaking product can be introduced. Especially when it's already market available and not still in the testing phase. I've been looking at adding an exterior layer of insulation to retrofit my house. Based on your research would you recommend this as an additional layer that could be sandwiched between the insulation and original house exterior? Are there ADDITIONAL potential installation issues such as being to prone to punctures as you mentioned, that would make it not viable for this application? Also is there a performance difference between placing the material between the rockwool and drywall vs the rockwool and the house sheathing (plywood)? THX
Placement of the material is a primary focus. PCMs are used to best effect when they communicate with the heat source. So..In a mostly cooling environment you will want to place the material closer to the outside surface(siding) with your insulation layer between it and the conditioned space. The PCM will absorb and reduce the delta across your insulation layer during the melting phase then follow the path of least resistance(back to the outside (ambient) when it gives it up and refreezes. In areas where heating is primary, the heat source would be the conditioned space. Placement would be inside the sheet rock with the insulation toward the outside (ambient). excess heat from furnace or fireplace that is otherwise lost will then be intercepted by the PCM, then when the heat source is turned down in the evening, and the temp in the room reaches the PCT, it will give the heat up back to the room keeping it moderated for hours
I would love to see Ricky get his roof painted white with the new product that Purdue University has developed that reflects over 99% of the sun's rays. Supposedly it can reduce AC costs by 90%. I am moving to AZ in a few years and am very interested in this new technology...
Btw if the solar panels are mounted with a decent air space it will greatly reduce heat in your attic.
Thanks again Mr Ricky!!
I live in a place where the temperature can range from roughly 30-40 in the day to 10-20 at night (In Celsius for international purposes), so this would be super useful!
I wonder if there is any benefit in my climate (-35c to -20c in the winter, +30c to +20c in the summer? NW Ontario Canada. Seems there would be no phase change in either extreme!
@@alcocklake Hard to say if it would be useful in your climate. It might help during the summer maybe, but if the temperature doesn't change between too hot and too cold within a 24h time span I doubt it would be super useful.
@@alcocklake are you saying summer is day 30C night 20C? Or is that the range of day temperatures? If that is the day night swing it's probably not enough. He was talking about a range of 17C or more. And it would be no good at all for the winter. You probably just need really really thick insulation for those mega cold winters. Once you have that you'll probably be fine in the sumer too.
@@adrianthoroughgood1191 Yup, R30 walls, R60 in the roof, I am hoping for a product that will work in these temps.
Where do you live with such huge temp swings?
Looks like a pretty cool product. I wonder how it would work for areas that get very cold, say minus 30 degrees F.
Very little.
It would keep your house warmer for a while if your heating broke down.
Having a latent heat thermal battery such as this as a thin layer wall cladding means you won’t need electricity, due to the large surface area that can absorb energy, but adds complexity and cost. Having a latent heat thermal battery plastic tank in your crawl space, with a air-to-liquid heat pump a.k.a air conditioner to charge it will store a lot more heat, and is serviceable. The electricity will be free by solar.
That's just uber cool! Thanks Ricky!
omg! that's brilliant!! I have no doubt this will be implemented in the walls of MARS habitats
At room temp about 300 joules are needed to raise the temp of one gram of water to boiling point.
It'll then take another 539 joules to evaporate that water.
Nearly 2x as much heat for the phase change vs the temperature rise
What was the melt point temp of the material you used? I’m familiar with a house in Colorado that used a similar product. They have to open windows everyday, even in the winter, to cool the house. It is critical you select the right melting point for the PCM. Once installed you have to live with your decision. Not much real world data exists. I’ve run basic tests on it and in general my results were the same as yours. It smoothed out the curve. And as you said the temperature must move across the melt point which may not happen on a residential interior. I’m considering an exterior application with a 32 degree set point in Colorado. Almost everyday the winter temperatures move across freezing. For San Diego I would think an attic installation would work well for heat moderation. Make sure you engineer structure for the added weight. Good luck!
Yes, the house in Colorado does indeed have to open windows in winter because it is kept too warm by the PCM and solar hot water. (the only time the furnace has come on EVER was when the solar water pump failed). When the house was built, 78f was the only melt point option worked out. and of course 78f is way too hot for a house at over 8000' elevation. Still, you can't argue that opening the windows isn't a better option than $1000 per month propane bill..
@@garygray-fx1ho Good to know. I was using ENRG Blankets from Phase Change Solutions/PhaseStor. I was actually testing a heating product, WarmFloor, from Step Heat, a 24 volt heating mat that is solar compatible. I was testing to see if during the day I could use solar panels (direct connection, no controllers, no batteries) to power the heating mat in a crawlspace with PCM placed on top. The heat from the WarmFloor mat PCM would melt during the day and solidify during the night releasing the heat. I tested other "mass" options for storing the heat. Result: In a crawlspace, with weight not being an issue, a cement paving stone worked almost as well as the PCM.
I’m curious, you mentioned it would be great in florida, but also that it needs a big variance in temperature to be the most efficient. I’m in florida, and it seems like 8-10 months of the year our temperature is from the low 70’s at night to the low 90’s during the day. Would that be enough of a variance? It seemed like you mentioned a 30-40 degree variance in your area.
In a renovation or new build the heating or a/c can be downsized greatly offsetting the insulation costs.
Seems to me the volume of "phase insulator" used would be correlated to the volume of air it insulates. I.e. When you scale this to a larger size building without "cubing" or increase the thickness of the insulator results might differ. 🤔
True, Understanding your load and placement is critical but remember in retro applications your issue will be controlling the delta across the existing r values. In terms of real performance it is quite easy to reduce the delta to the point the performance value of the insulation layer is several times higher than stated R Value.
Could it be used as a thermal bank in a solar oriented greenhouse? That is to use it on the north wall to capture heat in day and give off at night?
One last comment-your test was a hot mess. With those results you are gonna spend an extra 25K on your house?!? Wow-I've got a bridge to sell you.
Interesting. Just picking up on your comment to use this above rockwool insulation in an attic. This metalised sheet will act as a moisture barrier so won't you get condensation problems from the warm moist air rising through the ceiling? I was advised against using a similar looking but bubble wrap metalised sheet above my rockwool insulation by the manufacturer for this reason. They said if anywhere it should be under the insulation on the topside of the plasterboard and sealed. But then that wouldn't work with the phase change as it would always be at internal room temperature. I suppose the solution would be to first have a moisture barrier then rockwool then phase change insulation which would be ok as there would not be any moist air rising through the rockwool.
I have the pleasure of having the cell company putting a cell tower in my back yard(within 100yards). I now have RA. I’ve mitigated most of it by installing a metal roof on a barn that’s between my house and the tower. Just as a selling point, I could see your product as a way of blocking unwanted EMF from unwanted towers?
FWIW, back in the early days of life in the Southwest, adobe structures used the thermal mass to do similar things. Sun would heat the adobe during the day, and the thermal mass allowed the adobe (up to twelve inches thick) to heat up gradually, but kept the interior cool during the day. At night, the energy would continue to "percolate" inward, and provided warmth during the night.
A passive system that worked quite well.
That's just thermal mass, not phase change. Different ball game.
Do not rely on this video for accurate phase change information.
While the product information is correct, the terms he uses to talk about the absorption and release of energy are often the opposite of what they actually would be under the conditions described.
As long as you don't care about the scientific aspect, it's a great presentation.
Phase change is a great technology. For home insulation it can use night time cold to cool things during the day. Or day time heat to heat at night. But if daytime doesn’t get warmer or nighttime doesn’t get cool then this is not going to be useful.
I’m sure there is some climates this is great in but it will be very niche.
laying PCM rolls over rockwool insulation over ceilings looks like it would create a vapor barrier on the wrong side of the insulation material leading to interstitial condensation unless there happens to be a previously installed vapour barrier behind the ceiling drywall.
"Oh, so a thermal battery with a customized, engineered temperature range, and impressive volumetric thermal load? Know what? I'll check it out"
*Sees the price*
"Well, I'll just see myself out. Have fun."
Feeding the RUclips algorithm. Informative video. Thanks.
This heat trapping system would be well suited to places where it's hot (or at least sunny) during the day and then cool in the evenings; evenings where it would be nice to have a bit of the day's warmth in the house. Would it be of any use where the ambient temperature is constantly too hot for comfort - like in hot and humid environments?
No… it needs that charge discharge cycle to be worthwhile. You would benefit just as much from a radiant barrier which is super cheap but does need to go inside walls which isn’t
@@TwoBitDaVinci I've heard of an idea in Israel (similar weather to San Diego) - where there is a outside wall in your house that faces the sun during the day, absorbing heat, and then, in the evening, the actual wall is rotated so the warm side faces inwards. This phase shift material would work really well in that scenario since more heat would be absorbed per unit area - more than just heating up a solid layer of bricks/stucco.
Interesting , Thank you . I hope it workes and is practical
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not. The problem with this insulation if we ignore the foil is it doesn't work as an insulator, so once it's warmed up or cooled down it basically useless. The main time this would be an issue is in winter, it might get a bit warmer during the day, but it's going to remain constantly cold not allowing the stuff to re solidify. This could also happen durin prolonged hot periods when it doesn't cool down significantly at night.
Also it will have a rather specific temperature range it's suited for, meaning if it's hotter or colder than normal weather where you live and outside the design temperature it's never going to go through the state change.
I could be wrong and they somehow design for this with multiple materials with different melting points in layers or something.
I think you are right. This is only for deserts where the day is hotter than you want and the nights are colder than you want.
The object is to pick the specific temperature melt point for the enveironment and the placement in the building. These choices will be based on a number of criterion. Such as Whether it is largely a heating or cooling area, daytime and diurnal overnight lows, sunlit surface temps, any available R value, and others. You are also correct that in order for the IR reflector to work it needs an air gap. If one is not available in the assembly, the reflector will not work, However it may be that the low emissivity surface can be utilized to ensure refreezing. There is a pretty simple formula for determining the amount of PCM necessary for an application. QE Platinum will happily share it with you so you can determine Where to place and how much QE Platinum needed for a specific application.