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Publication
A Large-Diameter Earth–Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX) Built for Standalone Office Room Cooling: Monitoring Results for Hot and Dry Summer Conditions
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Earth–air heat exchangers (EAHX) use the soil thermal capacity to dampen the amplitude
of outdoor air temperature oscillations. This effect can be used in hot and dry climates for room
cooling, and depending on the EAHX design, this cooling can be achieved with very few resources
other than those used during EAHX construction. This is an obvious advantage compared to the
significant energy consumption and operational costs of refrigeration machines traditionally used
in room cooling. Despite the large number of papers on EAHXs available in the scientific literature,
very few deal with large-diameter EAHXs (with pipe diameters larger than 0.30 m), and even fewer
present monitoring data gathered from a built and functional large-diameter EAHX. The present
paper uses monitoring data and provides a detailed quantitative analysis of the performance of a
large-diameter EAHX built for standalone cooling of an existing office building. The field monitoring
was carried out during a characteristic hot and dry summer period of the south of Portugal. Results
show that outdoor air to EAHX exit air temperature gradients reach 9 K and cooling capacities exceed
27 kW. Moreover, the studied EAHX is capable of standalone cooling for outdoor air temperatures up
to 33 ◦C and meets more than 50% of the room design cooling demand for outdoor air temperatures
as high as 37 ◦C. This evidences that large-diameter EAHXs have the potential to achieve significant
reductions in CO2 emissions and in energy consumption associated with building cooling in hot and
dry climates.
Description
Keywords
Earth–air heat exchanger (EAHX) Monitoring Load removal Room cooling Office building
Citation
Duarte, R., Gomes, M. da G., Moret Rodrigues, A., & Pimentel, F. (2023). A Large-Diameter Earth–Air Heat Exchanger (EAHX) Built for Standalone Office Room Cooling: Monitoring Results for Hot and Dry Summer Conditions. Applied Sciences, 13(22), 12134.