Coupling Geothermal Heat Pumps with Underground Seasonal Thermal Energy Storage (EW-201135)
Abstract
EW-201135, Coupling Geothermal Heat Pumps (GHPs) with Underground Thermal Energy Storage (USTES) was proposed because, in the US, the fundamental design of GHP systems, with their underground Groundloop Heat Exchanger (GHX) or water supply wells, has been largely unchanged for decades, while the international design community has progressed to more innovative and efficient architectures. Energy consumption associated with Heating, Ventilation and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems are generally a significant contributor to a buildings entire energy consumption. In pursuit of reducing energy consumption, the HVAC industry is typically progressing to develop various types of HVAC technology to help reduce the energy consumption of an associated HVAC system. Historically, conventional GHP HVAC systems are considered one of the most, if not the most efficient active HVAC systems. Most DoD (and non-DoD commercial) facilities in many geographic regions are cooling dominated due to the consistent presence of cooling loads associated with people, lights and equipment (computers, copiers, monitors, etc.). Furthermore, most HVAC systems used in the Southeastern (SE) US (the region where both ESTCP projects were accomplished), are significantly cooling dominated. Typically, DoD facilities have imbalanced cooling versus heating loads, which in some applications, can have annual cooling loads that are as much as 5-10 times more than the annual heating loads. For a conventional GHP system, this load imbalance, over time, can lead to higher supply water temperatures and cause the operating efficiencies (EER or COP) of the water-cooled equipment to decrease. In extreme cases, the supply water temperatures can increase up to the point where the water-cooled equipment can fail/fault due to high refrigerant pressure safeties.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1034826
Entities
People
- Charles Jr W. Hammock
- Stephen Sullens