Reducing the Environmental and Economic Consequences of Installing an Underground Collector and Increasing User Comfort with a New Geometry and Installation Method

Abstract

The installation of ground collectors often has several disadvantages for the user, despite future benefits in more ecological heating, namely the need for a large space for installation, which increases costs, and can also cause inconvenience later, for example, by keeping snow on the surface for a longer time. The goal of this paper was to find out with the help of simulations in ANSYS whether a collector with a different geometry and arrangement (vertical spiral with diameters of 6, 8 and 10 m), which would be more comfortable, cheaper, and also friendlier to the environment, would achieve performance similar to the classic geometry—meander. The initial results are relatively favorable and prove that there is room for optimization and improvement in this field. Verification of network sensitivity in all cases is 8% or less. In the current situation of the energy crisis, it is necessary to look for the possibilities of using heat pumps in cities and metropolises. The new geometry could increase the attractiveness and availability of ground source heat pumps in general, which would support efforts to reduce emissions and possibly also reduce the negative impacts of heating on the environment.