Potential of microencapsulated PCM for energy savings in buildings: A critical review

•Application of Microencapsulated Phase Change Material (MPCM) in buildings is reviewed.•MPCM technology for improving building energy efficiency is studied.•The indoor thermal performance of the buildings has been analyzed.•Research gaps were identified and suggestion for future studies was presented. The building sector, around the world, has shown a tremendous increase in the demand for energy due to economic development, urbanization and improvement in the living standard. A major chunk of this energy is utilized for space cooling and heating. Microencapsulated Phase Change Material (MPCM) based thermal energy storage technology has the potential to reduce the energy consumption of the buildings, by improving the indoor thermal comfort, when integrated directly into the building materials. A large number of research articles have been reported to assess the thermal performance of the building envelope by integrating MPCM in the building materials like cement, mortar, brick, wallboard, and gypsum. This paper shows a comprehensive review of various experimental studies (laboratory-based and real ground testing), using only MPCM, have been done to evaluate the actual potential of MPCM in improving the thermal performance of the buildings. The articles are classified based on characterization, real-time testing with building material like mortar, brick, and cement, real-time testing with lightweight building material like wallboard, plasterboard and gypsum, and computer simulation software of MPCM. Based on the review research gap has been identified and are analyzed for suggesting future research work.