Developing a Practical Geothermal Indoor Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning System

摘要

Developing renewable and clean energy has been proposed by many researchers for alleviating the adverse impact on our deteriorating environment. In this paper, the application of geothermal cooling and heating capacities for controlling indoor temperature is presented. The groundwater at depth of more than 5 meters below the surface has constant temperature year round. Lower groundwater temperature is expected at shallow depth than the summer ambient temperature whereas the groundwater temperature in deeper strata is sufficiently to provide indoor heating for cold seasons. The objective of this research is to use the inexhaustible geothermal energy for maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature with the ultimate goal of saving energy while providing a quality inhabitable environment. A pilot plant with detailed designs on pipe layout and control valves has been developed for carrying out the study to achieve the following objectives: (1) long-term monitoring of groundwater temperatures at various depths, (2) monitoring groundwater quality, (3) simulating the groundwater cooling system and pipeline layout to understand the influence of pipeline and control valve layout on the proposed system, (4) planning a groundwater cooling system and simulating the system at various groundwater temperatures so that the simulation results are applicable for various latitudes, and (5) simulating the overall system operation and efficiency.