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Ground Loops for Heat Pumps and Refrigeration
Abstract
Ground loops are used for water source heat
pumps. Refrigeration can be put on a ground loop.
Water-cooled condensing units are more efficient
than air-cooled, and they can be put indoors.
Indoor location makes piping for desuperheater hot
water easy. Since refrigeration equipment runs
more than heat pumps, energy savings can be large
for ground-coupled refrigeration. The paper
presents a design procedure for ground loops for
heat pumps, hot water, ice machines, and
water-cooled refrigeration. It gives an overview
of the commercial ground-coupled systems in
Louisiana that have both refrigeration and heat
pumps. Systems vary from small offices to a
three-story office building with 187 tons. A chain
of hamburger outlets uses total ground-coupling in
all of its stores. A grocery store has
ground-coupling for 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 system to a similar bank
with air-conditioning and gas for heat revealed a
31 percent reduction in utility costs for the
ground-coupled building. Two buildings of the
Mississippi Power and Light Co. have ground-coupled
heat pumps in one, and high efficiency air source
heat pumps in the other. Energy savings in nine
months was 60,000 kWh (25 percent), and electric
peak demand was reduced 42 kW (35 percent).
Citation
Braud, H. J. (1986). Ground Loops for Heat Pumps and Refrigeration. Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu); Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6881.