This communication presents the experimental study of PCM based thermal management systems for space heating and cooling applications using energy and exergy analysis. Two different types of based thermal management system (TMS-I and TMS-II) using calcium chloride hexahydrate as the heat carrier has been designed, fabricated and studied for space heating and cooling applications at a typical climatic zone in India. In the first experimental arrangement the charging of PCM has been carried out with air conditioning system while discharging has been carried out using electric heater for both the thermal management systems. While in the second arrangement the charging of PCM has been carried out by solar energy and the discharging has been carried out by circulating the cooler ambient air during the night time. In the first experiment, TMS-I is found to be more effective than that of TMS-II while it was found to be reverse in the case of second experiment for both the charging and discharging processes not only for energetic but also for the exergetic performances. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.