10/15/2015
Suppose I am interested in finding the most ideal configuration of active site-energy elements for conditioning a home that requires a six ton heat pump. If I was approaching this with conventional ground source playbook I would need to design a six ton GHEX to connect my heat pump to and then I could look at adding solar or fluid coolers or whatever. I could perhaps skimp some on the GHEX to account for the added capacity of the other intermittent elements but not very much. This is because I need time direct conductive capacity and if I short my GHEX too much the heat pump will lock out fairly quickly. If I build a full size GHEX then the added intermittent elements have to justify their 100% added cost by efficiency improvements over the par ground source performance.
The better way is to abandon the conventional ground source play book and adopt the Site-Source Thermal Energy Management SSTEM approach. This approach does not arbitrarily designate a single source (the ground) as being associated with the energy flows through the heat pump. Rather, the source is the site, and the source is managed. The heat pump requires time direct conductive capacity, and a Fusion Capable Thermal Battery FCTB provides this. (Not a proprietary technology or product.)
This element provides the thermal foundation and 2000 gallon FCTB has a passive recovery capacity of approximately one ton. The cumulative loads are served by any other active thermal elements that source or sink energy from or to the site. Maybe additional GHEX's are justified, maybe solar thermal collectors provide better value, maybe a fluid cooler/ambient absorber should be in the mix. When you have the foundation set the rest of the source/sink element options can compete equally and they are not added costs on top of a full size conventional GHEX.
I urge my friends and colleagues in the ground source industry to think outside the box and stop calling our industry and these heat pumps ground source. It is a good place to exchange energy but the term is limiting and it need not be. I think we were and we are the source energy management industry.
