Heating Performance of Horizontal Geothermal Heat Pump System for Protected Horticulture

Geothermal heat pump systems use the earth as a heat source in heating mode and a heat sink in cooling mode. These systems can be used for heating or cooling systems in farm facilities such as greenhouses for protected horticulture, cattle sheds, mushroom house, etc. A horizontal type means that a geothermal heat exchanger is laid in the trench buried in 1.2 to 1.8 m depth. Because a horizontal type has advantages of low installation, operation and maintenance costs compared to a vertical type, it is easy to be adopted to agriculture. In this study, to heat and cool farm facilities and obtain basic data for practical application of horizontal geothermal heat pump systems in agriculture, a horizontal geothermal heat pump system of 10 RT scale was installed in greenhouse. Heating performance of this system was estimated. The horizontal geothermal heat pump used in this study had heating COP of 4.57 at soil temperature of 14 for depth of 1.75m and heating COP of 3.75 at soil temperature of 7 for the same depth. The stratification of water temperature in heat tank appeared during the whole heat rejection period.