Heat pumps and hybrid options

Obviously, the hart of a ground source heat pump system is the heat pump. A heat pump is able to transfer energy from low to high temperature at very high efficiency, thereby saving primary energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. If you like to know more about how a heat pump works follow this link.

For a good matching between building loads and installed heatpump capacity, the total capacity is devided in a number of steps by using one or more heat pumps with one or more compressors each. In this way a total capacity of, say, 200 kW can be devided in 4 x 50 kW steps. This, together with the buffer capacity, prevents frequent cycling of the heat pump. Cycling (switching on/off) should be avoided as both the service life and the performance of the heat pump decreases dramatically.

Heat pumps can be switched between heating and cooling mode internally (reversible heat pumps) or externally.

Peak demand and backup heating capacity can be provided by gas-fired boilers while additional cooling capacity can be provided by dry-air coolers or other means. These systems are directly integrated with the low temperature heating or high temperature cooling system, guaranteeing optimal integration and performance.

Examples of the main equipment in a hybrid ground source heat pump system are:

heat pump

Core of the GSHP system, generating heat and cool at high efficiency.

borehole heat exchanger

Core of the GSHP system, providing the main source and sink for thermal energy (storage).

dry air cooler

To reject heat during peak demand or for trimming imbalance in energy demand.

boiler

To generate heat during peak demand or for trimming imbalance in energy demand.

solar collector

Harvesting solar energy, stored in the ground for use in winter.

asphalt collector

Another way to harvest solar energy, can also be used to reject heat in winter.