Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness of Ground Source Heat Pump for Five- Storied Office Building

Non-clean energy resources cause pollution, climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, in present scenario it is very much required to use renewable energy resource as sustainable solution. Geothermal heat energy stored within the earth is one of the biggest sources of renewable energy. Shallow geothermal energy can easily be extracted using close- or open- looped geothermal systems and it is very effective for building heating or cooling purposes. Ground source heat pump (GSHP) is a closed-loop system where vertical boreholes are equipped with HDPE

/ PVC pipes (primary circuit) through which heat exchanger fluids are circulated, and when passing through boreholes they exchanges heat with surrounding ground. Heat pump is used to take out the fluids and circulate inside the building through pipes (secondary circuit) embedded in concrete floor to exchange heat with surrounding air.

A five-storied office building was studied to estimate energy requirements for heating and cooling demands in summer and winter for sizing GSHP using Energy-Plus software. Climatic and soil conditions for ten different metropolitan cities located mostly in tropical regions were considered. Using Ground Loop Design (GLD) software design of GSHP system was done based on energy demand of the building. A comparison of GHSP system design for the building in different cities and cost analysis are discussed. It is observed that the cost and performance of GSHP depends on several factors such as energy load demand, soil conductivity, and climatic condition.