A Study on the Effect of Performance Factor on GSHP System through Real-Scale Experiments in Korea

• Main Authors: Hongkyo Kim, Yujin Nam, Sangmu Bae, Jae Sang Choi, Sang Bum Kim
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-01-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: ground source heat pump (gshp); ground heat exchanger (ghex); heat storage tank (hst); coefficient of performance (cop); performance factor; real-scale experiment
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/3/554

A ground source heat pump system is one of the high-efficient technologies for space heating and cooling since it uses stable underground temperature. However, in actual application, many situations cannot be achieved due to the unsuitable design of operation. In particular, the design characteristics of buildings with different building load patterns are not reflected by the conventional design method. Moreover, the design capacity of the heat pump can be reduced by designing less capacity than the peak load through the introduction of the heat storage tank, but there is no related quantitative design method. Therefore, in this study, the effect of the ground source heat pump system design factors such as shape, length of the ground heat exchanger, and the capacity of the heat storage tank on the system performance was analyzed. To quantify the effect of such factors on system performance, an experimental plant was constructed and case studies were conducted for each design factor.