Energy design for dense neighborhoods: One heat pump rejects heat, the other absorbs heat from the same loop

•The future energy design of dense neighborhoods calls for multiple heat pumps served by the same ground flow loop.•Heat pump operation is diverse: one heat pump rejects heat, while its neighbor absorbs heat.•The paper shows that the performance of neighboring pumps depends on how they are connected to their common ground loop.•The performance measures are the heat transfer rates of the pumps, and the total pumping power required by the assembly.

This paper documents the joint performance of heat pumps that are served by a common loop buried in the ground, and which operate simultaneously: one heat pump absorbs heat from the buried loop whereas the other one rejects heat. A background flow is circulated in the underground loop even when the two heat pumps are not operating. The objective is to determine the performance and the manner in which it is affected by the way in which the two heat pumps are connected to the loop. The performance measures are the heat transfer rates into and out of the heat pumps, and the total pumping power required by the assembly. The paper documents the individual performance of the heat pumps, and their relative performance, which is the ratio of heating absorbed by one pump to the heating rejected by the other pump.