Spatiotemporal dynamics of thermal comfort, energy consumption, and carbon emissions in climate-adaptive MPCMs used for building envelopes across 11 cities with continental climate

To achieve the synergistic optimization of thermal comfort, energy consumption, and carbon emissions, the microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs)-reinforced fast-growing Eucommia ulmoides (EU) fibers concrete composite walls (MPCMs-EUWs) were designed and evaluated in 11 representative cities across the Dfa/Dwb and Dfb/Dwb climate zones. The year-round thermal comfort and sustainability simulations were performed. The effects of MPCMs with varying phase change temperatures (18 °C, 24 °C, 28 °C, 32 °C, and 37 °C) on the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), total operational energy consumption, and carbon emissions were evaluated. Simulation results showed that, among MPCMs with varying phase change temperatures, PMV was effectively modulated by the optimal composite strategies. For the cities of Chicago, Beijing, Seoul, Almaty, Ottawa, Moscow, Helsinki, Calgary, Vladivostok and Warsaw, the comfortable PMV range of −1.1–0.0 was achieved by MPCMs18-EUWs, and the range of 0.1–+1.9 was achieved by MPCMs32-EUWs/MPCMs37-EUWs. Furthermore, substantial reductions in the minimum monthly operational energy consumption (15.37–27.19 MJ/m2) and carbon emissions (0.37–4.65 kgCO2/m2) were achieved in these 10 cities. Although this primary strategy was effective for most cities, region-specific tailored composite strategy of MPCMs28-EUWs, MPCMs24-EUWs, and MPCMs37-EUWs was identified for Bucharest. In addition, a novel energy-PMV synergy index is first proposed to quantify the synergistic effect of thermal comfort and total operational energy consumption. In summary, this work provides a strategy for selecting thermal comfort, energy-efficient, and low-carbon building materials in 11 representative cities.