Analysis of the ground-source heat pump operation with various heat-carrier fluids in the lower heat source

Abstract

In the paper the analysis of the operation of ground-source heat pump with various heat-carrier fluids circulating in boreholes was made. The authors considered several aspects related to the heat-carrier fluid selection (freezing point, heat transfer capabilities, toxicity, pumping costs). The lower heat source analysis had been performed in Earth Energy Designer (EED) software. The analyses’ results reliability was assured by the ground-source model calibration made basing on the measurement data from on-site test stand. Analyses were performed for four heat-carrier fluids (two kinds of propylene glycol solutions – standard and with lower viscosity, water and nanofluid (water + CuO)) and in four variants of thermal load (design and actual loads both with and without active regeneration). It had been concluded that temperature of none of the fluids would drop under 0°C if the system was operated under actual thermal load. For design thermal load there would be a risk of the water freezing but it may be minimized by active regeneration or lower heat source enlargement by 20% (in analyzed case) each rising the mean fluid temperature by around 1.0-1.5 K. The use of other fluid in place of standard propylene glycol solution will give pumping energy savings.