Estimating Uncertainty of the Design Length of Borehole Ground Heat Exchangers

Abstract

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems have a potential to reduce carbon emissions from buildings, but the adequate design of such systems, including the ground heat exchangers (GHEs), is crucial for their financial viability. Some research has been conducted in developing the methodologies of the probabilistic life-cycle cost assessment of such systems, but the uncertainties of the lengths of GHEs were not included in those studies. In this paper, the uncertainty of the length of borehole GHEs is estimated for a case study when a common design process is followed. The estimated length uncertainty can be used in the probabilistic cost assessment of the GSHP system under consideration as well..