Performance Evaluation of a Ground Source Heat Pump for the Coastal Climate

Abstract

A ground source heat pump (GSHP) system is a set of equipments taking the advantage of inverse Carnot cycle to provide space heating and cooling for both residential and commercial usage. A study is undertaken to evaluate the performance of a GSHP system installed at Dholera, Gujarat. It is surrounded by the Arabian ocean on the western side with a coastline of 1600 km. Water is of prime importance when we consider a geothermal heat source. Due to the coastal areas, the geothermal heat source cannot be used directly into the heat pump. Thus the heat exchanger is one of the most important components in these areas. Presence of high salinity and heavy metals in the groundwater affects the equipment badly. The used groundwater temperature is about 450C. The performance evaluation of the hot loop cycle of the heat pump is considered as our prime objective is power generation. As per design aspect, the temperature output at the hot loop is 750C. From the results, it is concluded that to achieve the optimum efficiency with minimum power consumption we should maintain the inlet temperature of the hot loop at a fixed value. In our system, the temperature difference of a fixed value is maintained using a cooling tower along with Auto Tuning PID (Proportional-integral-derivative) Controller with Temperature sensor.