8T- Ground Source Heat Pump Project Analysis

Overview

Maintaining a comfortable temperature inside a building can require a significant amount of energy. Separate heating and cooling systems are often used to maintain the desired air temperature, and the energy required to operate these systems

generally comes from electricity, fossil fuels, or biomass. Considering that 46% of sun’s energy is absorbed by the earth, another option is to use this abundant energy to heat and cool a building. A heat pump is used to concentrate or upgrade this free heat energy from the ground before distributing it in a building through conventional ducts. It operates much as a refrigerator or conventional air conditioning system in that it relies on an external source of energy - typically electricity - to concentrate the heat and shift the temperature.

Installation and exploitation of the ground source heat pump (GSHP) system requires carefully technical planning and financial evaluation. This course describes several systems currently in use and methods method used to estimate of building loads. Combining weather and building data enables the calculation of building loads for each temperature bin. With the GSHP related data, it then becomes possible to evaluate the actual heat pump performance and capacity for each temperature bin, and finally calculate the yearly performance of the GSHP system assessed. This course is suitable for engineers with a desire to understand the fundamentals of GSHP system and issues related to their technical and financial implementation and exploitation. Upon successful completion engineers will be able to address GSHP terms, methods of operation and how to set up detailed technical and financial GSHP model.