•Thermal analysis of encapsulated PCM based thermal management system.•Good potential to cool the room for summer condition even with heating loads.•Found to be technically as well as economically viable for cooling of buildings. This communication presents the thermal performance and economic evaluation of the thermal management system (TMS) for cooling applications using calcium chloride hexahydrate as a phase change material. This experimental work was done to shift the peak time cool energy demand for off peak time. The PCM was selected for TMS on the basis of availability in the desired temperature range and long term thermal behavior. The designed system was tested with air conditioning system for cool energy storage and discharged with three heating loads (1kW, 2kW and 3kW) for the real life application. The energetic and exergetic efficiencies were also calculated and found to be highest for 1kW and lowest for 3kW heating load. The economic evaluation of the TMS has been carried with respect of per unit cost of electricity generated by coal, diesel and solar energy and found that payback time is low for solar based generation in comparison to electricity generation by other sources. The results of this study were also compared with those of the theoretical values and are found in good agreement with each other.