Datum Phase Change Ltd have been manufacturing their award winning ThermaCool® products since 2010 and have been installed in schools, public sector buildings, healthcare, hotels and residential projects across Europe. We have state of the art automated production lines designed for microencapsulated phase change material.
ThermaCool wall and ceiling panels have achieved the highest standards required from BASF, manufacturers of the Micronal PCM.
In just a short space of time, the ThermaCool® brand has become the market leader in building solutions incorporating phase change material due to its natural ability to absorb and store excess heat gains that accumulate within buildings throughout the day. This is none more so apparent than in modern lightweight constructed buildings such as educational buildings and commercial offices where a lack of thermal mass, greater densities of occupants and equipment are contributing to rapid increases in internal temperatures. Whilst you are probably thinking well that’s why we install air conditioning, the fact of the matter is that these significantly costly remedies alone are no longer managing the required comfort levels needed in the modern built environment.
ThermaCool® products, which included an acoustic modular suspended ceiling tile and a tongue and grooved panel for partition wall and/or ceiling applications, are designed to be easily integrated into new building designs or existing buildings as a passive solution for buffering peak temperature gains.
Disbursed throughout the matrix of the ThermaCool® products are small microcapsules filled will an engineered wax (the phase change material) which has been developed by global chemical leaders BASF, Germany. Placed within a room this phase change material will begin to absorb large amounts of latent heat as the room temperature begins to increase above 19°C. By 23°C the microcapsules have absorbed their capacity of heat by which point the room temperature will stabilised to maintain a comfortable working environment. These performance characteristics makes ThermaCool® the first choice for architects and M&E consultants in achieving high performance building designs using an effective lightweight thermal mass technology that delivers on improved thermal comfort as well as reduced demand for mechanical cooling.
Over the past couple of years and with the introduction of the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP) and comfort demands of CIBSE TM52 standards; ThermaCool products have been repeatedly specified in education projects across the UK as well as in Europe. However the scope of applications for ThermaCool® has seen them installed in multiple sectors including commercial offices, public sector buildings, healthcare as well as residential projects.
References:
“The new CIBSE TM59 in London developments will force us down the PCM route, especially in high rise or lightweight construction”
“The results of the overheating assessment have improved considerably. The largest benefit results from the application of phase change partitions to apartment internal walls . The temperatures have improved considerably across all apartments.”
Hilson Moran
https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/energy_assessment_guidance_2018.pdf
“BASF SE as supplier of Micronal(R) PCM – we have an excellent overview of the PCM market and its applications worldwide. ThermaCool® is one of the most promising solutions with great potential for refurbishment and new construction. It is a brilliant tool for planners to optimise or even avoid the need for air conditioning and it has the ability to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in commercial offices and retail buildings as well as in residential and domestic markets. We fully support this clever solution.” – Marco Schmidt, Head of Business Management Micronal PCM, BASF
BRE recognise the significant impact that Phase Change Materials will have on the future design of our homes, both of new build and refurbishment. The use of the ThermaCool® product in our Victorian Terrace exemplar project here at BRE, will allow us to monitor the benefits in passive cooling, and the advantages of building thermal mass into existing structures to address climate change and reduced energy use.” – John O’Brien, Principal Consultant, Refurbishment & Regeneration, BRE
“Datum Phase Change Limited’s integration of Phase Change Material into a standard ceiling tile system provides the perfect retrofit solution to the commercial market for reducing reliance on mechanical cooling systems. We are confident that the solution can provide real tangible benefits to customers, and are very happy to be working with Datum carrying out a demonstrator project at the Department for Energy and Climate Change after our success in the Technology Strategy Board’s Energy Efficient Whitehall competition.” – Matt Keen, Project Manager, Willmott Dixon Re-Thinking