Compact buried pipes system analysis for indoor air conditioning

Given the international state of affairs in what concerns the heating of buildings and the necessary reduction of costs in the heating and cooling energy consumption, it is imperative to study and develop passive methods of heat transfer including heat exchange through buried pipes. Common configurations of a heat exchanger usually consider one single layer of pipes requiring a large installation area. This major drawback can be overcome using a multiple layer configuration. This paper presents a study considering the use of a heat exchanger with a multiple layer configuration, namely, comparing it with a single layer of pipes and describing the major performance differences. A parametric analysis was also performed to better understand the effect of the main input parameters on the heat exchanger power output. It was concluded that the heat exchanger power increases with the layers depth until 3 m and that the more efficient distance between layers should be kept at 1.5 m. The heat exchanger layout is also described as well as the implementation of the numerical model and the corresponding application to a real case study.