Comprehensive Benefit Analysis of Direct Expansion Ground Source Heat Pump System

Yuefen Gao, Yingxin Peng, Juanjuan Liu

School of Energy, Power & Mechanical Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China.

DOI: 10.4236/epe.2013.52A009                

Abstract

Direct Expansion Ground Source Heat Pump (DXGSHP) system directly extracts heat or cold energy from ground by consuming electricity to provide for space conditioning. Compared with the currently widely-used secondary loop Ground Couple Heat Pump (GCHP) system, it has higher energy efficiency, lower operating costs, and less environmental impact. A case study is carried out in this paper. The subject is a residential building located in Beijing, China. It is assumed that the building adopts the DXGSHP system and the GCHP system respectively. Annual loads and energy consumption are simulated and computed. Then the initial cost, operating cost and CO₂ emission are calculated. The economic benefit is analyzed with the Payback Time method and the Dynamic Annual Cost Value method. The environmental benefit is discussed mainly by comparing the CO₂ emission savings. The results show that the DXGSHP system has higher initial costs, but lower operating costs, and less greenhouse gas emissions. The DXGSHP system has better comprehensive benefits than the GCHP system.

Keywords

Direct Expansion Ground Source Heat Pump; Economic Benefit; Environmental Benefit

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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