Study on the hybrid GCHP system with a desuperheater

A hybrid ground-coupled heat pump (HGCHP) system with a desuperheater is proposed for improving the energy performance of the traditional ground-coupled heat pump (GCHP) system in cooling-dominated buildings. This system can provide space cooling/heating and domestic hot water (DHW) as well. A detailed steady-state simulation model for the HGCHP system has been developed based on the basic conservation laws of mass and energy and heat transfer correlations. As compared with the cooling-only scheme without DHW heating, the HGCHP system with DHW provision can achieve considerable energy savings and greatly alleviate the heat buildup in the ground through using excess heat for preheating or producing DHW. Finally, the simulation model of the HGCHP system is verified to be accurate within ±15% of the experimental data, which demonstrates that it is suitable for research study and engineering applications with satisfactory accuracy.