Evaluation of a Novel Hybrid Ground-coupled Heat Pump System with Heat Compensation and Domestic Hot Water Supply

Underground thermal imbalance is a big problem for ground-coupled heat pump systems (GCHP) serving heating-dominant buildings in cold regions, because more heat is extracted from the ground and less is rejected, especially for buildings with domestic hot water demand. To solve the problem, a heat compensation unit with thermosyphon (HCUT) previously proposed is integrated with GCHP unit to create a novel hybrid GCHP system for heat compensation (HC) and domestic hot water (DHW) supply. To analyze the performance of the novel system, a hotel with the demand of AC and DHW in Harbin is simulated in dynamic simulation tools DeST and TRNSYS. The simulation results indicate that the novel GCHP system can maintain the underground thermal balance well and a proper operation of the new GCHP system can save energy. Thus, the novel GCHP system is an effective energy-saving solution for AC and DHW in cold regions.