Study on the efficiency of large shallow GSHP Systems

ELI-NP after one year operation

Abstract

This paper is an overview of the performances of the Shallow Ground Source Heat Pump HVAC system from ELI-NP after one year of operation. It approaches the system performances in terms of energy consumption, stability of the indoor comfort parameters and prospective of optimal control. The use of a research facility is different from a classic non- residential building. The large equipment and the large built area of the clean rooms, the high stability of the required comfort parameters imply a high consumption of energy for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The final goal is to achieve a viable model with replication potential for general use applications (air conditioning of non-residential objectives or district centralized air conditioning). Databases resulting from the continuous real-time monitoring of the system, during 2020, have been analyzed. Deviations of data from the reference values have been interpreted to find solutions for the long-term keeping of indoor microclimate parameters at the required values. The data analysis shows that the system covers the building load / the building energy needs at a high parameters stability. The Energy Intensity Use of the ELI-NP facility (436.13 kWh/ m2/yr) is less than half of the median EUI for Technology/Science laboratories in the US (1004 kWh/ m2/yr), as published on the platform Energy Star. The use of the shallow Ground Source Heat Pump HVAC system instead of a traditional fossil fuel one, comes with estimated savings of 60% in the cost of energy consumption of buildings. The next step to follow is a higher accuracy separation of the Ground Source Heat Pump HVAC system electricity consumption. Then an optimization strategy to supply the indoor comfort parameters at the lowest possible energy consumption follows.