Foundation Heat Exchanger Final Report: Demonstration, Measured Performance, and Validated Model and Design Tool

Abstract

The authors wish especially to acknowledge the contributions of Schaad Companies, which acquired the land and built the test houses for this research at their own expense, and leased them to ORNL for $1 per month for the duration of the project. Without Schaad Companies this research project (and many others utilizing a total of four test houses) would not have been possible. In addition, ClimateMaster, Inc. donated the water-source heat pumps installed in the test houses and used in the research reported here. This and other research projects, reliant upon the same test houses but not the subject of this report, also benefited from contributions of materials and expertise made by additional industry partners of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as acknowledged at www.zebralliance.com. ZEBRAlliancea publicprivate partnership to maximize cost-effective energy efficiency in buildingswas co-founded by ORNL and

Ground Source Heat Pump Sub-Slab Heat Exchange Loop Performance in a Cold Climate

“…The ideal design would route the hottest fluid near the perimeter of the slab while maintaining a margin of safety around the footings. The model developed by TESS is capable of simulating a wide variety of heat exchanger geometries, including placing the loops on the outside perimeter of the foundation as proposed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Hughes and Im 2013) and investigated in several publications.…”