Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) are efficient alternatives to air source heat pumps to provide heating and cooling for conditioned buildings. GSHPs are widely deployed in the midwest and eastern regions of the United States but less so in Texas and the southwest regions whose climates are described as being semi-arid. In these semi-arid regions, building loads are typically cooling dominated so the unbalance in energy loads to the ground, coupled with less conductive soil, cause the ground temperature to increase over time if the ground loop is not properly sized. To address this ground heating problem especially in commercial building applications, GSHPs are coupled with supplemental heat recovery/rejection (SHR) systems that remove heat from the water before it is circulated back into the ground loops. These hybrid ground source heat pump systems are designed to reduce ground heating and to lower the initial costs by requiring less number of or shallower boreholes to be drilled. This thesis provides detailed analyses of different SHR systems coupled to GSHPs specifically for residential buildings. The systems are analyzed and sized for a 2100 ft2 residential house, using Austin, Texas weather data and ground conditions. The SHR systems investigated are described by two heat rejection strategies: 1) reject heat directly from the water before it enters the ground loops and 2) reject heat from the refrigerant loop of the vapor compression cycle (VCC) of the heat pump so less heat is transferred to the water loop at the condenser of the VCC. The SHR systems analyzed in this thesis are cooling towers, optimized VCC, expanded desuperheaters and thermosyphons. The cooling towers focus on the direct heat rejection from the water loop. The VCC, desuperheater, and thermosyphon systems focus on minimizing the amount of heat rejected by the VCC refrigerant to the water loop. In each case, a detailed description of the model is presented, a parametric analysis is provided to determine the amounts of heat that can be rejected from the water loop for various cases of operation, and the practical feasibility of implementation is discussed. An economic analysis is also provided to determine the cost effectiveness of each method. / text

Baigiamajame magistro darbe nagrinėjama tiesioginė šilumos atgavimo funkcija iš šilumos siurblio darbo ciklo ir jos pritaikomumas Lietuvos klimatinėmis sąlygomis. Apžvelgiami naudojamų šalčio mašinų tipai, technologiniai tiesioginio šilumos atgavimo inžineriniai sprendmiai. Taip pat detaliai paaiškinamas šilumos siurblio darbo ciklas ir tiesioginio šilumos atgavimo funkcijos veikimo principas. Taip pat šilumos atgavimo founkcija nagrinėjama konkrečiame jau egzistuojančiame administracinės paskirties pastate, kuriame sumontuota vandeninė šalčio mašina. Nustatomas šalčio mašinos darbo režimų grafikas skaičiuojamąjį Liepos mėnesį. Dviejomis nepriklausomomis kompiuterinėmis programomis sumodeliuojami šalčio mašinos freono konturų darbo ciklai. Pagal gautus rezultatus parenkami ir sumodeliuojami šilumos atgavimo šilumokaičiai ir randamos įmanomos atgauti šilumos galios ir šilumos kiekiai, kurie palyginami su pastato karšto vandens poreikiais ir atliekamas ekonominis šilumos atgavimo funkcijos vertinimas. Gauti rezultatai patvirtina, kad tokio tipo šilumos atgavimas didina pastato energijos vartojimo efektyvumą ir padeda taupyti pinigus. Taip pat nustatyta, kad Lietuvos klimatinėmis sąlygomis šilumos atgavimas įmanomas tik šiltuoju metų sezonu, kai pastate yra vėsos poreikis, tačiau nepaisant to, metiniai sutaupymai yra pakankamai dideli, todėl tiesioginis šilumos atgavimas yra efektyvi mikroklimato sistemų optimizavimo priemonė. / In this Master thesis a direct heat recovery option on the air cooled chiller and its availability in Lithuanian climate has been investigated. Also the review of chiller range, direct heat recovery technological issues and direct refrigerant vapor compression cycle has been explained in detail. Also the heat recovery option has been investigated in the specific administrative building with the chiller already installed. Chiller cooling chart has been calculated for the selected time period – a month of July. Chiller refrigerant circuits were modeled by using two independent computer applications. In accordance with the calcultated results, plate heat exchangers were designed. Possible amount of recovered heat was found and compared with building‘s heat demand for hot domectic water supply. The economical evaluation of heat recovery option was carried out. The results confirmed that the heat recovery option discussed in the thesis can increase energy consumption efficiency. Despite the fact that heat recovery in Lithuanina climate is only possible during the warm season, annual savings on energy consumption are sufficiently high to make the heat recovery measure an attractive option.