The paper seeks to offer a procedure to design an effective short term thermal energy storage (TES) system using phase change materials. The methodology focus on two main aspects: the selection of the working material and the heat exchanger development. The selection of the appropriate PCMs is one of the main keys for any TES therefore their classifications, properties, advantages and disadvantages need to be investigated. Due to the intensive researches using this kind of materials in the recent years, there are a range of commercial PCMs available and supplied by different companies. However, all types of PCM present their specific problems and therefore requirements are defined in order to select the most suitable PCMs. The other main key when designing TES is related to the heat exchanger formed by the PCM and the cold/hot heat sources. For this step, the choice of the appropriate container to encapsulate the PCM and the heat transfer enhancement techniques are analysed. Distinct methodologies such as experimental and numerical study methods and modelling software tools are presented to analyse the thermal energy performance of the system and achieve the optimal design of the TES system. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.