PERFORMANCE OF GROUND COUPLED RETROFIT AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM

Abstract

Due to the ongoing use of conventional energy sources, such as those produced by coal based power plants, for space heating and cooling applications, environmental pollution has recently become a problem. The production of energy from sustainable sources, such as solar, wind, biomass, tidal, hydro, and ground energy, is receiving a lot of attention in an effort to reduce pollution, carbon dioxide emissions, and other greenhouse gas emissions globally. In comparison to many other energy sources, the ground can function as the most efficient heat sink/source for cooling and heating applications, respectively. When a climate control system is cooling during the summer, its performance index can be increased by rejecting heat to the ground, which is always cooler than the air around it. Similar to the summer, the earth may be used to store heat during the winter because it is always warmer than the surrounding air. Through the use of a ground heat exchanger, a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system enables the interaction of cooling and heating processes with the ground. The most environmentally friendly and energy-efficient heating and cooling technology, GSHP installation prices are higher than those of conventional air conditioning systems. Today, space heating and cooling are just two uses for GSHPs that have become common nowadays. This technique is well-established in the West, Europe, and China. The GSHP system excels in locations with high demand for both space heating and cooling. To improve the performance of GSHP systems, much research has been conducted. A specific type of geothermal heat pump that is made in Western nations is often used in GSHP systems. When the arrangement is imported into India, it becomes expensive and useless. In order to reduce the import of geothermal heat pumps, considerable study is required to utilise the current air conditioning systems as retrofit ground linked systems. The present dissertation is an attempt to convert an existing split AC into a ground coupled systems for heating and cooling requirements. A ground coupled retrofitted split AC is installed in Room No 107 of MIED, IIT Roorkee. Several experiments were conducted over 18 days for space cooling and heating applications and the required observations were recorded over 9-10 hours operation. The results obtained were used to compute various performance parameters like heat rejected/extracted, work input, cooling/heating effect and COP.