Experimental and Theoretical Cooling Mode Energy Analysis of Geothermal Heat Pump System in Vardavard Substation Building in Iran

Abstract

Although Iran is considered a high-potential country in terms of fossil fuel resources, it deals with the problem of rising electricity demand in some certain times of the year resulting in blackout. Therefore, electricity consumption reduction has become a prominent issue. Heat pumps utilizing vapor-compression cycle to provide cooling and heating is a big source of electricity consumption in peak demand hours. Geothermal heat pumps can decrease the consumption a great deal. In this paper, the geothermal heat pump system in Vardavard Substation building is introduced. As the biggest GHP system yet installed in Iran, the paper presents analysis of the experimental data collected from the project site in cooling mode and developing results from a building energy modelling based on Energy Plus. The results indicate considerable energy saving in cooling mode electricity consumption compared to the previous air-to-air heat pump.