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The Energy Performances of a Ground-to-Air Heat Exchanger: A Comparison Among Köppen Climatic Areas

Author

Listed:
  • Diana D’Agostino

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

  • Francesco Esposito

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

  • Adriana Greco

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

  • Claudia Masselli

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, 84084 Fisciano (SA), Italy)

  • Francesco Minichiello

    (Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, P.le Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli, Italy)

Abstract

In this paper the energy performances carried out by an investigation conducted on a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, composed by an Air Handling Unit (AHU) for the primary air coupled with a horizontal-pipes Ground-to-Air Heat eXchanger (GAHX) and fan-coil units, for an office building, supposed to be placed in four different cities (Rio de Janeiro, Dubai, Naples, Ottawa) belonging to four different worldwide climatic areas, according to the Köppen climate classification. The investigation is performed by means of a two dimensional numerical model, experimentally validated, of an GAHX solved with finite element method. The results introduced in this paper are carried out by varying the length of the pipes and the air flow velocity; thus, also the number of tubes forming the GAHX is varied since the volumetric flow rate to be provided to the AHU must be kept constant. The energy performances of the above-mentioned HVAC system are analyzed, both in summer and in winter operation modes. Specifically, the reduction of the power of the heating and cooling coils in the AHU due to the pre-treatment of the air operated by the GAHX, the efficiency of the GAHX and the inlet-outlet temperature span are evaluated through a sensitivity analysis. These results lead to say that an GAHX for the geothermal pre-treatment of the air to be introduced into the AHU is energetically very convenient since it leads total thermal power savings in all the investigated cities, that makes this solution competitive. Specifically the best value of power reduction (61.5%) for a 100 m pipe-length GAHX is obtained in Ottawa, a city belonging to continental climate zone. The worst results in terms of power reduction are registered in Rio de Janeiro, a city belonging to the tropical or equatorial climates: this reduction, for a 100 m pipe-length ground to air heat exchanger, is 23.9%.

Suggested Citation

  • Diana D’Agostino & Francesco Esposito & Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli & Francesco Minichiello, 2020. "The Energy Performances of a Ground-to-Air Heat Exchanger: A Comparison Among Köppen Climatic Areas," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-25, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2895-:d:367975
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Yapeng Ren & Xinli Lu & Wei Zhang & Jiaqi Zhang & Jiali Liu & Feng Ma & Zhiwei Cui & Hao Yu & Tianji Zhu & Yalin Zhang, 2022. "Preliminary Study on Optimization of a Geothermal Heating System Coupled with Energy Storage for Office Building Heating in North China," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-23, November.
    3. Maria Vicidomini & Diana D’Agostino, 2022. "Geothermal Source Exploitation for Energy Saving and Environmental Energy Production," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(17), pages 1-5, September.
    4. Andrew Zajch & William A. Gough & Giacomo Chiesa, 2020. "Earth–Air Heat Exchanger Geo-Climatic Suitability for Projected Climate Change Scenarios in the Americas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-28, December.
    5. Piotr Michalak, 2022. "Hourly Simulation of an Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger in a Low-Energy Residential Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Diana D’Agostino & Luigi Mele & Francesco Minichiello & Carlo Renno, 2020. "The Use of Ground Source Heat Pump to Achieve a Net Zero Energy Building," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-22, July.
    7. Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli, 2020. "The Optimization of the Thermal Performances of an Earth to Air Heat Exchanger for an Air Conditioning System: A Numerical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-25, December.
    8. D'Agostino, D. & Minichiello, F. & Petito, F. & Renno, C. & Valentino, A., 2022. "Retrofit strategies to obtain a NZEB using low enthalpy geothermal energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    9. Luca Cirillo & Adriana Greco & Claudia Masselli, 2023. "The Application of Barocaloric Solid-State Cooling in the Cold Food Chain for Carbon Footprint Reduction," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-17, September.
    10. Piotr Michalak, 2022. "Impact of Air Density Variation on a Simulated Earth-to-Air Heat Exchanger’s Performance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-24, April.

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