Performance of a residential ground source heat pump system in sedimentary rock formation

The use of ground-source heat pump system has been widely adopted over the past decades due to its potentials to provide renewable and low carbon footprint energy source for building's heating and air-conditioning needs. This paper reports the design and post construction monitoring of a vertical ground-coupled heat pump system installed adjacent to a three-floor residential house located in Cleveland, OH, USA. The system operates under the special geological condition with shallow depth outcrop of sedimentary shale rock formation typical of Northeastern Ohio, USA. A comprehensive monitoring program was installed to collect data on the operation and performance of the ground-coupled heat pump system. The data recording was initialized in Oct. 2012 and has been in place ever since. Overall, the monitoring data shows that the ground heat pump achieved very good performance. The coefficient of performance (COP) of ground coupled heat pump system ranges from 3 to 4. The heat pump satisfies most of the house heating requirements, including severe cold winter, during the monitoring period. This case study demonstrates the feasibility of ground-coupled heat pump system in providing Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) source for residential building for either heating dominant or cooling dominant conditions under sedimentary rock geological conditions. The possible solutions to decrease the initial investment are proposed in the study.