Study on Engineering Design and Cost Performance of Borehole Heat Exchangers

The ground source heat pump (GSHP) is an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient technology, and the investigations on the simulation models of borehole heat exchanger (BHE) have made progress. However, the researches on engineering design and economic performance based on the simulation models of BHE are a few. This paper firstly describes the interior and exterior heat transfer according to the existing achievements, and the corresponding characteristics of models are explained. Afterwards, the detailed design procedures of BHE size are provided and the cost performance is highlighted. Accordingly, an actual engineering project which employs GSHP system as the air conditioning system is researched; the necessary expenses on BHE, heat pump units, and indoor end equipment are all taken into account. The initial investment, operating cost, and other factors that exert influences on the cost performance are demonstrated. In addition, comparisons between different systems are conducted to show the advantages of GSHP. By means of thermal transfer analysis and the design of engineering project, the practicability, energy saving, and environmental protection of GSHP are brought into play, which means the promotion of this technology is the general trend of development of air condition system.