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In this study, tubes filled with PCM as a thermal energy storage unit with an indirect air heater are used to store and recover solar thermal energy. Two different configurations of PCM-filled tubes (inline and staggered) in the unit are considered and compared with the PCM-filled plate unit. In all cases, the amount of the PCM is the same. The effects of airflow rate, diameter of tubes and inlet temperature on the charging and discharging rates are studied. Results showed that the PCM tube unit is more efficient than the PCM plate unit. The thermal performance is enhanced with the increase of the air mass flow rate. Results also revealed that the phase change rate in staggered configurations is between 7% and 36% (depending on the airflow rate) greater than that in the inline ones. By reducing the tube diameter, the melting and solidification processes are performed more quickly due to the rise of the overall heat transfer surface area. The influence of the temperature difference between the inlet air and PCM is more effective than the other considered effects where the 10 °C increase of the temperature difference enhances the charging rate by a factor of 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]