Comparison between design and actual energy performance of a HVAC-ground coupled heat pump system in cooling and heating operation

• Published in: Energy and buildings Vol. 42; no. 9; pp. 1394 - 1401
• Main Authors: Magraner, T., Montero, Á., Quilis, S., Urchueguía, J.F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier B.V 01.09.2010; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Building technical equipments; Buildings; Buildings. Public works; Computer simulation; Design engineering; Energy efficiency; Energy management and energy conservation in building; Environmental engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Experiments; Ground coupled heat pump; Grounds; Heat pumps; Heating and cooling systems; Mathematical models; Numerical prediction; Performance prediction; Simulation; Heating and cooling systems; Energy efficiency; Ground coupled heat pump; Computer simulation; Experiments; Air conditioning; Performance evaluation; Cooling; Heat pump; Geothermal energy; System design; Climatic engineering; Experimental study; Building equipment; Heating; Energetic efficiency; Ventilation; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0378-7788
• DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.03.008

This work compares the experimental results obtained for the energy performance study of a ground coupled heat pump system with the design values predicted by means of standard methodology. The system energy performance of a monitored ground coupled heat pump system is calculated using the instantaneous measurements of temperature, flow and power consumption and these values are compared with the numerical predictions. These predictions are performed with the TRNSYS software tool following standard procedures taking the experimental thermal loads as input values. The main result of this work is that simulation results solely based on nominal heat pump capacities and performances overestimate the measured overall energy performance by a percentage between 15% and 20%. A sensitivity analysis of the simulation results to changes in percentage of its input parameters showed that the heat pump nominal coefficient of performance is the parameter that mostly affects the energy performance predictions. This analysis supports the idea that the discrepancies between experimental results and simulation outputs for this ground coupled system are mainly due to heat pump performance degradation for being used at partial load. An estimation of the impact of this effect in energy performance predictions reduces the discrepancies to values around 5%.