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Ground-Coupled Heat Pump Applications and Case Studies
Abstract
The paper presents an overview of ground loops for
space-conditioning heat pumps, hot water, ice machines,
and water-cooled refrigeration in residential and commercial
applications. In Louisiana, a chain of hamburger drive-ins
uses total ground-coupling in its stores. A grocery store
has ground-coupling for all heat pumps and refrigeration.
Desuperheaters provide 80 percent of the hot water for a
coin laundry in the same building. A comparison of energy
costs in a bank with a ground-coupled heat pump to a
similar bank building with air-conditioning and gas for heat
revealed a 22 percent reduction in utility costs for the
ground-coupled building. In a retrofit application of
ground-coupled heat pumps to replace air-conditioning and
electric heal, energy consumption was reduced by 67 percent,
and peak kilowatt demand was reduced by 50 percent.
Citation
Braud, H. J. (1989). Ground-Coupled Heat Pump Applications and Case Studies. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6562.