Heat exchanger sizing for vertical closed-loop ground-source heat pumps
- Caneta Research, Inc., Mississauga, Ontario (Canada)
- Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (United States)
A building energy simulation program has been used in conjunction with a ground heat exchanger sizing algorithm to develop general guidelines on how to size vertical ground heat exchangers for closed-loop ground-source heat pump systems in large buildings. The analysis considered three commercial building types of varying size with different internal loads and heat pump efficiencies. Each building variation was simulated in seven cities, three in the US and four in Canada. The ground heat exchanger sizing algorithm has been previously validated against actual system data. The analysis results showed a strong correlation between heat exchanger length required and annual energy rejected to the ground, if the building was cooling-dominated, or annual energy extracted from the ground, if the building was heating-dominated. The resulting sizing guidelines recommend hour-by-hour energy analysis to determine the energy extracted from and rejected to the building water loop. Using this information the designer will have available easy-to-use, accurate sizing guidelines that should result in more economical installations than those based on previous ``rule of thumb`` guidelines.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, ON (Canada); Ontario Ministry of Energy, Toronto, ON (Canada)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-84OR21400
- OSTI ID:
- 226024
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950336-30; ON: DE96008652; TRN: AHC29610%%66
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: American Society of Mechanical Engineers/Japanese Society of Mechanical Engineers/Japan Solar Energy Society international solar energy conference, Lahaina, HI (United States), 19-24 Mar 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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