Study on operation management of borehole heat exchangers for a large-scale hybrid ground source heat pump system in China

In this paper, three operation conditions for a cooling load dominated GSHP system in China are studied. First, specific ground conditions of the BHE field are investigated. The GSHP system operation under intermittent heating and cooling conditions is simulated by Thermal Performance Test (TPT). In order to examine performance of the BHEs and ground temperature migration, a numerical heat transport model is developed. Modeling results indicate similar thermal performance of BHEs and ground temperature disturbance among the three operation alternatives over a 25-year period. Finally, economic performance and operating savings are analyzed. The optimized operation condition in which the operating numbers of BHEs was designed with monthly energy demand of the building could save around 25,000 CNY (∼3000 EUR) annually.