Thermal energy storage (TES) has been widely adopted to bridge the mismatch between energy supply and demand. In general, thermal energy storage is segregated as sensible TES and latent TES whereby both have their own advantages and disadvantages. This study explores the possibility of utilizing the advantages of both sensible and latent TES by embedding phase change materials as a wall of the sensible TES. To investigate the performance of the proposed TES, an experimental set-up of TES with PCM embedded in the wall is developed. Temperature distribution within TES is measured and recorded during charging and discharging process. Several key parameters are evaluated to gauge their influence on the performance of the studied TES. The results indicate that the performance of TES with embedded PCM is superior that that without PCM, indicating the potential of the proposed design for high performance thermal energy storage application. © 2020 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.