Advanced Analysis of Geothermal Heat Pump System Data

Geothermal heat pumps utilize heat pump technology to access the ubiquitous and plentiful renewable thermal energy in the shallow subsurface. While there are tremendous potential economic and environmental benefits in the development of this resource, high up‐front installation costs and lack of confidence in the performance of geothermal heat pump systems are significant market barriers to the adoption of this technology. Collection and analysis of data from actual geothermal heat pump systems was identified by the Department of Energy (EERE/BO, 2012) as the number one research priority for reducing these two significant barriers to widespread adoption of geothermal heat pump technology. This project proposes an industry/research university partnership to develop new advanced methods of analyzing the increasingly available geothermal heat pump data. These analysis methods will quantify performance, with greater confidence and fidelity than those currently available. Performance metrics will be developed and quantified for each of the three system components: 1) the ground loop heat exchanger, 2) the heat pump equipment, and 3) the building envelope. The Phase 1 research will apply methods developed in the field of artificial intelligence to diagnose the performance of these mechanical systems and statistical methods to quantify the confidence of the performance metrics. These new methods of analysis will be incorporated into a software product with the capability to interface with web‐enabled heat pump monitoring systems that are currently available on the market. End users will be provided with an array of performance metrics, with greater confidence, that are each directly tied to components of the geothermal heat pump system. Early adopters of the software are expected to include utilities interested in evaluating incentive programs, developers looking to issue performance guarantee contracts, and investors interested in third‐party ground loop ownership. Each of these customers are reluctant to enter the market due to a lack of confidence in geothermal heat pump system performance and the absence of an efficient means to administer their respective programs. The software product will reduce the critically important confidence gap, lead to improved designs and heat exchanger materials, and provide new insights into the role that subsurface conditions play in overall system performance.