Performance Analysis of Underground Duct for room environment control

Abstract

Earth-pipe-air heat exchanger systems can be used to reduce the cooling load of buildings in summer. In a developing country like India, there is a huge gap in demand and supply of electricity and rising electricity prices have forced us to look for cheaper and cleaner alternative. Our objective can be met by the use of ground heat exchangers and the system is very simple which works by moving the heat from the house into the earth during hot weather. Measurements show that the ground temperature below a certain depth remains relatively constant throughout the year. Experimental investigations were done on the experimental set up in PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh. Effects of the operating parameters i.e air velocity and temperature on the thermal performance of horizontal ground heat exchanger are studied. For the pipe of 13.6 m length and 0.15 m diameter, temperature rise of 5.90C-11.90C have been observed for the outlet flow velocity ranging from 1.8m/s to 4.1 m/s. At higher outlet velocity and maximum temperature difference, the system is most efficient to be used.