The Thermal Properties of an Active–Passive Heat Storage Wall System Incorporating Phase Change Materials in a Chinese Solar Greenhouse

The use of renewable energy for food and vegetable production is a potential sustainable method to reduce fossil energy consumption. Chinese solar greenhouses (CSGs) are horticultural facility buildings in the northern hemisphere that use solar energy to produce off-season vegetables in winter. The north wall heat storage and release capacity of CSG has a significant impact on the indoor thermal–humidity environment. However, common traditional solar greenhouses commonly have problems such as insufficient heat storage and release, thick temperature stability zones inside the walls, and inability to dynamically regulate the entire greenhouse environment. Therefore, a novel active–passive heat storage wall system (APHSWS) incorporating phase change materials has been developed to promote the thermal performance of the CSG and its internal temperature of the thermal storage wall in this paper. Through experimental and simulation methods, the heat storage and release of the APHSWS and its impact on the greenhouse environment are investigated. The findings indicate that the APHSWS has increased the wall heat storage and release capacity, compared to the ordinary greenhouse without the APHSWS, in three typical weather conditions in winter (i.e., sunny, overcast, and cloudy); the average temperature of greenhouse with the APHSWS has increased in indoor air temperature, wall surface temperature, and soil surface temperatures of 1.58–6.06 °C, 2.71–6.58 °C, 0.91–6.39 °C, respectively; and during the experiment, the greenhouse with the APHSWS has a monthly average daily effective accumulated temperature of 1.39 times, 1.18 times, 0.60 times, and 0.20 times that of the ordinary greenhouse without the APHSWS from December to March of the next year, respectively. Under typical sunny conditions, the greenhouse wall heat storage capacity increased by 1.59–2.44 MJ/m2 and the heat release capacity increased by 0.97–1.17 MJ/m2. At the direction of wall thickness, the temperature at each point inside the wall with the APHSWS is always higher than that of ordinary wall without the APHSWS. In addition, the operating cost of the APHSWS in winter is analyzed.