Efficiency, Economic and Environmental Assessment of Ground Source Heat Pumps in Central Pennsylvania

Author

Blumsack, Seth ; Brownson, J. ; Witmer, L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Energy & Miner. Eng., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA

fYear

2009

fDate

5-8 Jan. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

7

Abstract

The energy use of a ground-source heat pump (GSP) for heating, cooling and hot water in a Central Pennsylvania residence (namely, the author´s house) is analyzed, compared to a simulation of electricity and a heating-oil furnace (with electric cooling) for these same energy uses. Energy demands for space conditioning in the house are simulated by building a model of the house using the Transient Energy System Simulation (TNRSYS) tool. Overall, the efficiency gain for the ground-source heat pump compared to electricity is 43% for cooling and 81% for heating. For home heating and hot water, the ground-source heat pump has a 42% efficiency gain over a fuel-oil furnace. The system modeled in this paper has a payback period of between four and five years compared to an all-electric system. The payback period compared to a hybrid system of fuel-oil heat and electric cooling is between two and three years.

Keywords

cooling; environmental factors; heat pumps; space heating; Central Pennsylvania residence; GSP; TNRSYS tool; cooling; economic assessment; environmental assessment; ground-source heat pump; heating; home heating; space conditioning; transient energy system simulation; Cooling; Environmental economics; Fuel economy; Furnaces; Heat pumps; Land surface temperature; Power generation economics; Resistance heating; Space heating; Water heating;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

System Sciences, 2009. HICSS '09. 42nd Hawaii International Conference on

Conference_Location

Big Island, HI

ISSN

1530-1605

Print_ISBN

978-0-7695-3450-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HICSS.2009.179

Filename

4755520