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An Innovative Use of Renewable Ground Heat for Insulation in Low Exergy Building Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Forrest Meggers

    (Singapore-ETH Centre, Future Cities Laboratory, Low Exergy Module, Singapore 118999, Singapore)

  • Luca Baldini

    (ETH Zurich, Institute for Technology in Architecture, Building Systems, Zurich 8093, Switzerland)

  • Hansjürg Leibundgut

    (ETH Zurich, Institute for Technology in Architecture, Building Systems, Zurich 8093, Switzerland)

Abstract

Ground heat is a renewable resource that is readily available for buildings in cool climates, but its relatively low temperature requires the use of a heat pump to extract it for heating. We developed a system that uses low temperature ground heat directly in a building wall to reduce transmission heat losses. The Active Low Exergy Geothermal Insulation Systems (ALEGIS) minimizes exergy demand and maximizes the use of renewable geothermal heat from the ground. A fluid is pumped into a small pipe network in an external layer of a wall construction that is linked to a ground heat source. This decouples the building from the outside temperature, therefore eliminating large peak demands and reducing the primary energy demand. Our steady-state analysis shows that at a design temperature of −10 °C the 6 cm thick active insulation system has equivalent performance to 11 cm of passive insulation. Our comparison of heating performance of a building with our active insulation system versus a building with static insulation of the same thickness shows a 15% reduction in annual electricity demand, and thus exergy input. We present an overview of the operation and analysis of our low exergy concept and its modeled performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Forrest Meggers & Luca Baldini & Hansjürg Leibundgut, 2012. "An Innovative Use of Renewable Ground Heat for Insulation in Low Exergy Building Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 5(8), pages 1-18, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:5:y:2012:i:8:p:3149-3166:d:19552
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Taylor, BJ & Imbabi, MS, 1998. "The application of dynamic insulation in buildings," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 377-382.
    2. Claesson, Johan & Eskilson, Per, 1988. "Conductive heat extraction to a deep borehole: Thermal analyses and dimensioning rules," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 13(6), pages 509-527.
    3. Torío, H. & Schmidt, D., 2010. "Framework for analysis of solar energy systems in the built environment from an exergy perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 2689-2697.
    4. Meggers, Forrest & Ritter, Volker & Goffin, Philippe & Baetschmann, Marc & Leibundgut, Hansjürg, 2012. "Low exergy building systems implementation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 48-55.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dushan Fernando & Satheeskumar Navaratnam & Pathmanathan Rajeev & Jay Sanjayan, 2023. "Study of Technological Advancement and Challenges of Façade System for Sustainable Building: Current Design Practice," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-33, September.
    2. Yang, Yang & Chen, Sarula, 2022. "Thermal insulation solutions for opaque envelope of low-energy buildings: A systematic review of methods and applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    3. Luo, Yongqiang & Zhang, Ling & Bozlar, Michael & Liu, Zhongbing & Guo, Hongshan & Meggers, Forrest, 2019. "Active building envelope systems toward renewable and sustainable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 470-491.

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