Technical-Environmental Economical Feasibility Study of Geothermal Heat Pumps

Considering the scarcity of natural fossil energy and dispersion of pollutant gases from their products، it seems utilizing cheaper and cleaner energy sources such as geothermal energy are vital. One of the applications of geothermal energy is geothermal pumps. The compressor of geothermal pumps utilizes the thermal energy of the earth to provide thermal load and hot water for the buildings by consuming electricity. There are two most common geothermal heat pumps including a system with vertical and horizontal ground heat exchanger. In the present study، in ventilation calculations، the required thermal load of a typical four story 12- unit residential building located in the East of Tehran was calculated separately based on the actual operational data. Each story has an area of 565 square meters. According to the thermal properties of soil and the annual average temperature of the abovementioned area، the appropriate geothermal heat pump was selected. Subsequently، three scenarios were created through Perform software on the basis of the primary costs of purchase and installment of geothermal heat pump and its electricity consumption. The cost-effectiveness of the studied system with that of the previous one was compared technically، economically and environmentally on the basis of carbon credit costs in the world market. The results of this study indicate that the application of geothermal heat pumps decreases the total emission of pollutants across implementing the project by 3759 tons of CO2 equivalent. Furthermore، 67،000 giga joules of natural gas will be saved at the end of the project.