Piljae Im

Foundation heat exchangers for residential ground source heat pump systems—Numerical modeling and experimental validation

A new type of ground heat exchanger that utilizes the excavation often made for basements or foundations has been proposed as an alternative to conventional ground heat exchangers. This article describes a numerical model that can be used to size these foundation heat exchanger (FHX) systems. The numerical model is a two-dimensional finite-volume model that considers a wide variety of factors, such as soil freezing and evapotranspiration. The FHX numerical model is validated with one year of experimental data collected at an experimental house located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The model shows good agreement with the experimental data—heat pump entering fluid temperatures typically within 1°C (1.8°F)—with minor discrepancies due to approximations, such as constant moisture content throughout the year, uniform evapotranspiration over the seasons, and lack of ground shading in the model.

Comparison Evaluations of VRF and RTU Systems Performance on Flexible Research Platform

The energy performance of a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system was evaluated using an occupancy-emulated research building in the southeastern region of the United States. Full- and part-load performance of the VRF system in heating and cooling seasons was compared with a conventional rooftop unit (RTU) variable-air-volume system with electric resistance heating. During both the heating and cooling seasons, full- and part-load conditions (i.e., 100%, 75%, and 50% thermal loads) were maintained alternately for 2 to 3 days each, and the energy use, thermal conditions, and coefficient of performance (COP) for the RTU and VRF system were measured. During the cooling season, the VRF system had an average COP of 4.2, 3.9, and 3.7 compared with 3.1, 3.0, and 2.5 for the RTU system under 100%, 75%, and 50% load conditions and resulted in estimated energy savings of 30%, 37%, and 47%, respectively. During the heating season, the VRF system had an average COP ranging from 1.2 to 2.0, substantially higher than the COPs of the RTU system, and resulted in estimated energy savings of 51%, 47%, and 27% under the three load conditions, respectively.

Application priority of GSHP systems in the climate conditions of the United States

ABSTRACT Building energy-performance simulation programs are powerful tools for many aspects of feasibility studies regarding ground source heat pump (GSHP). However, the understanding of the limitations of the energy modelling programs, their capability of predicting energy performance early in the design process, and the complicated functionality of these programs makes the software programs harder to use and less practical. The interactive tool developed in this study seeks to provide analysis information in a straightforward manner that is inexpensive, convenient, and sophisticated. This tool uses an inclusive approach to assess the feasibility of GSHPs by prescreening critical factors such as climate conditions, ground temperatures, energy use, and cost savings. It is interactive and enables the user to do a feasibility analysis with a weighting factor for each feasibility criterion based on the user’s preference and interests. The application of the tool explains feasibility scores of 15 representative cities in various climatic conditions across the US. Results for commercial buildings show that the GSHP systems are more feasible in cold and dry, cool and humid, and very cold areas than warm and dry, very hot and humid, and mixed marine areas, and that most feasibility levels are located on good and moderate.