A SIMULATION VERIFICATION OF SUSTAINABLE GEOTHERMALLY-HEATED HOUSE IN COOL CLIMATES

Abstract

Heating is required for residential buildings in climates like or cooler than that of Melbourne, Australia's cool temperate. Here, water from 100-meter-deep U-tubes (ground heat exchangers, GHE's) has been measured at a stable 22-24°C, and many detached houses have land for a few GHE's. The hypothesis is that, by circulating this warm water to low-temperature radiators (LTRs) on the inside faces, houses become cave-like with thermally comfortable indoors. EnergyPlus is used to model a GHE and LTRs for a 60m2-Melbourne house, to be used for experimental validation of simulated results. Simulations show that with three water pumps that use a total of 44 W, running from 7 am to midnight, during..