30 April 2013

Foundation heat exchangers for residential ground source heat pump systems

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Foundation heat exchangers utilize the excavation made for a house basement to significantly reduce the cost of
the ground heat exchanger used with a ground source heat pump system. This paper reports on results from two
test houses and several simulation-based design and energy analysis tools. The test houses, in eastern Tennessee,
had seasonal system coefficients of performance of 3.6 for heating and 4.2 for cooling utilizing water-to-air heat
pumps. Domestic water heating was also provided using dedicated water-to-water heat pumps. Experimentallyvalidated
design and energy calculation tools are now available.