Adsorption Thermal Energy Storage (TES) is a promising technology for long term thermal energy storage of excess and solar heat. By using the exothermic reversible adsorption process, excess heat from an incinerator or solar heat from the summer can be stored and then released for heating during the winter. The usefulness of the storage system relies heavily on the temperature and quality of the heat available for regeneration of the adsorbent as it affects the storage efficiency, the amount of water released from the adsorbent and in turn the performance or energy density of the storage system. In this study, a lab scale high throughput open loop forced air adsorption TES has been built. A series of adsorption experiments were performed to determine the effect of adsorption flow rate and cycling on the chosen best performing adsorbent, AA13X from Rio Tinto Alcan. Regeneration characterization experiments were performed to determine the effect of flow rate, temperature and feed air relative humidity on the regeneration and performance of the system. The results were compared with another adsorbent to verify the observed trend. Finally, the efficiency of the thermal storage system was calculated. (C) 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd.