• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.59-67
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• 2012

In this study,the compact type solar thermal and ground coupled heat pump hybrid system for space heating/cooling and hot water supply has been developed. This hybrid system was installed in Zero Energy Solar House(ZeSH) in KIER for the demonstration. The thermal performance and operational characteristics of this hybrid system were analysed especially. The results are as follows. (1) This hybrid system was designed in order to address the existing disadvantages of solar thermal/ground coupled heat pump system. For this design, all parts except solar collector and ground coupled heat pump were integrated into a single product in a factory. The compact type unit includes two buffer tanks, an expansion tank, pumps, valves, a controller, etc. This system has an advantage of easy installation with simple plumbing work even in narrow space. (2) The thermal charging and discharging time of the buffer tanks and its characteristics by ground coupled heat pump, and heat pump COP according to geo-source temperature and buffer storage temperature have been studied. This system was found to meet well to the heat load without any other auxiliary heating equipment. (3) The operating hours of the ground coupled heat pump as a backup device of solar thermal can be reduced significantly by using solar heat. It was also found that the minimum heating water supply setting temperature and maximum cooling water supply setting temperature make an influence on the heat pump COP. The lower heating water and the higher cooling water temperature, the higher COP. In this respect, the hybrid system's performance can be improved in ZeSH than conventional house.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.230-239
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• 2012

Ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) systems utilize the immense renewable storage capacity of the ground as a heat source or sink to provide space heating, cooling, and domestic hot water. The main objective of the present study is to investigate the cooling and heating performance of a small scale GCHP system with horizontal ground heat exchanger (HGHE). In order to evaluate the performance, a water-to-air ground-source heat pump unit connected to a test room with a net floor area of 18.4 m2 and a volume of 64.4 m3 in the Korea Institute of Construction Technology ($37^{\circ}39'N$, $126^{\circ}48'E$) was designed and constructed. This GCHP system mainly consisted of slinky-type HGHE with a total length of 400 m, indoor heat pump, and measuring devices. The peak cooling and heating loads of the test room were 5.07 kW and 4.12 kW, respectively. The experimental results were obtained from March 15, 2011 to August 31, 2011 and the performance coefficients of the system were determined from the measured data. The overall seasonal performance factor (SPF) for cooling was 3.31 while the system delivered heating at a daily average performance coefficients of 2.82.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.23 no.6
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• pp.392-399
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• 2011

Ground-coupled heat pump(GCHP) systems have been shown to be an environmentally-friendly, efficient alternative to traditional cooling and heating systems in both residential and commercial applications. Although some work related to performance evaluation of GCHP systems for commercial buildings has been done, relatively little has been reported on the residential applications. The aim of this study is to evaluate the cooling and heating performances of a vertical GCHP system applied to an artificial detached house($117\;m^2$) in Seoul. For this purpose, a typical design procedure was involved with a combination of design parameters such as building loads, heat pump capacity, borehole diameter, and ground thermal properties, etc. The cooling and heating performance simulation of the system was conducted with different prediction times of 8760 hours and 240 months. The performance characteristics including seasonal system COP, average annual power consumption, and temperature variations related to ground heat exchanger were calculated and compared.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2020

Ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) systems have become an efficient alternative to conventional cooling and heating methods due to their higher energy using efficiency. Although some experimental and simulation works related to performance analysis of GCHP systems for commercial buildings have been done, relatively little has been reported on the performance evaluation of GCHP systems for school buildings. The purpose of this simulation study is to evaluate the performance of a hypothetical GCHP system for a school building in Seoul. We collected various data of building specifications and construction materials for the building and then modeled to calculate hourly building loads with SketchuUp and TRNSYS V17. In addition, we used GLD (Ground Loop Design) V2016, a GCHP system design and simulation software, to design the GCHP system for the building and to simulate temperature of circulating water in ground heat exchanger. The variation of entering source temperature (EST) into the system was calculated with different prediction time and then each result was compared. For 20 years of prediction time, EST for baseline design (Case A) based on the hourly simulation results were outranged from the design criteria.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.487-496
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• 2012

Recently, utilization of building foundations as ground-coupled heat exchangers has attracted much attention because they reduce the cost and enhance the heat transfer. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of energy-slab ground-coupled heat exchanger installed in a commercial building. In order to demonstrate the energy transfer characteristics of the energy-slab, experiments were conducted from October 2010 to September 2011. The 1-year measurement results showed that the mean EWTs of brine returning from the energy-slab were $9.6^{\circ}C$ in heating season and $24.9^{\circ}C$ in cooling season, which were in a range of design target temperatures. In addition, the geothermal heat pump system with the energy-slab showed on-off operation according to the setting temperatures of secondary fluid in water storage tank. The results also showed that the energy-slab extracted heat of 198.6 kW from the ground and injected heat of 318.9 kW to the ground, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.293-298
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• 2016

A three-dimensional (3D) numerical model of the vertical ground-coupled heat exchanger is useful for analyzing the modern ground source heat pump system. Furthermore, a detailed description of the inner side of the exchanger allows to account for the effects of the thermal capacity. Thus, both methods are included in the proposed numerical model. For the ground portion, a FDM (Finite Difference Method) scheme has been applied using the Cartesian coordinate system. Cylindrical grids are applied for the borehole portion, and the U-tube configuration is adjusted at the grid, keeping the area and distance unchanged. Two sub-models are numerically coupled at each time-step using an iterative method for convergence. The model is validated by a reference 3D model under a continuous heat injection case. The results from a periodic heat injection input show that the proposed thermal capacity model reacts more slowly to the changes, resulting in lower borehole wall temperatures, when compared with a thermal resistance model. This implies that thermal capacity effects may be important factors for system controls.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Geothermal and Hydrothermal Energy
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.7-16
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• 2016

This paper presents the measurement and analysis results for the cooling performance of ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) system using a cooling tower as a supplemental heat rejector. In order to demonstrate the performance of the hybrid approach, we installed the monitoring equipments including sensors for measuring temperature and power consumption, and measured operation parameters from May 1 to October 30, 2014. The results showed that the entering source temperature of brine returning from the ground heat exchanger was in a range of design target temperature. Leaving load temperatures to building showed an average value of $11.4^{\circ}C$ for cooling season. From the analysis, the daily performance factor (PF) of geothermal heat pumps ranged from 4.4 to 5.2, while the daily PF of hybrid GCHP system varied from 3.0 to 4.0 over the entire cooling season.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.427-431
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• 2013

Ground heat pump systems utilize the annually stable underground temperature to supply heat for space heating and cooling. The underground temperature affects not only the underground ecosystem, but also the performance of these systems. However, in spite of the widespread use of these systems, there have been few researches on the effect of the systems on underground temperature. In this research, case studies with numerical simulation have been conducted, in order to estimate the effect of ground heat pump systems on underground temperature. The simulation was coupled with the ground water-ground heat transfer model and the ground surface heat transfer model. In the result, it was found that the underground change depends on the heat transfer from the ground surface, the heat exchange rate, and the heat conductivity of soil.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.1 no.4 s.4
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• pp.30-37
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• 2005

Cycle simulation of Ground Source Heat Pump[GSHP] system was carried out to determine the design specification of basic components such as turbo compressor and heat exchangers. Part load operation characteristics of the designed GSHP system was estimated using the compressor and heat exchanger performance data. A 50RT class turbo compressor for GSHP system is now under development, in which R134a refrigerant is adopted as working fluid. The compressor with variable cascade diffusers is designed to work both in cooling and heating modes so that it can actively keep up with the climate change with high efficiency. The normal running speeds of the compressor are 59000rpm for heating mode and 70000rpm for tooling mode respectively. It has two identical impellers at both ends of the rotor so as to minimize aero-induced thrust force effectively. GSHP system was coupled with a vortical type heat exchanger, and heat gain and heat loss from ground were evaluated per a bore hole. For the optimal integration of the heat pump system, its header for circulating fluid was combined with the ground heat exchangers in parallel and series configuration.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.25-32
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• 2018

Application of geothermal energy in buildings has been gaining popularity as it provides the benefits of both heating and cooling a building. Among the various types of geothermal energy systems, ground-coupled heat pump system is the most commonly applied one in South Korea. A ground heat exchanger plays an important role as a heat source in winter and a heat sink in summer. For the stable operation of a ground-coupled heat pump system, a ground heat exchanger should be sized so that it provides sufficient heating and cooling energy. Heating and cooling energies generated in ground heat exchangers mainly depend on the temperature difference between the heating medium in ground heat exchangers and the surrounding ground. In addition, the performance of ground heat exchangers influences the change in ground temperature. Therefore, it is necessary to consider this interrelation between the change in the ground temperature and the performance of ground heat exchanger for an accurate estimation of its performance. However, previous thermal analysis models for ground heat exchangers are not competent enough to allow a complete understanding of this interrelation. Therefore, this study proposes a three-dimensional equivalent, transient ground heat exchanger analysis model. First, a previous thermal analysis model for ground heat exchangers, including an analytical model, a g-function, and a numerical model are analyzed. Next, to overcome the limitations of the previous models, a three-dimensional equivalent, transient ground heat exchanger model is proposed. Finally, this study validated the proposed model with the measurement data of the thermal response test, sandbox test, and TRNSYS DST model. All validation results showed a good agreement. These findings helped us to investigate the thermal performance of ground heat exchangers more accurately than the analytical models, and faster than the numerical models. Furthermore, the proposed model contributes to the design of ground heat exchangers by considering the different operation conditions of buildings.