Effects of Installing a Geothermal System in a Residential Building For Cooling Purposes in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

In the last century, urban expansion has doubled the electricity demands and has also contributed to the increase of Urban Heat Islands (UHI) subsequently triggering the phenomenon of global climate change. Electricity is mainly consumed in residential buildings all over the world, contributing to the rise in temperature and the UHI phenomenon in big cities. In this regard, this study has tried to investigate the effect of adding a geothermal or ground source heat pump (GSHP) system in a residential building for cooling purposes in a hot climate such as the summer season in Lucknow city of India. This study has used DesignBuilder to make a building model of a residential building and then used EnergyPlus as a simulation tool for comparing the change in CO₂ emission and electricity or energy consumption for cooling, before and after the installation of GSHP in the residential building in a hot dry climate. The simulation has shown a significant impact on the residential building after the addition of a geothermal system. The temperature gets reduced by 9.3% in Zone 1, 10.75% in Zone 2, and 5.9% in Zone 3. In addition, CO₂ emission and electricity consumption of the entire building has reduced by 28.1%. The thermal comfort increased and the CO₂ emission was reduced which provided a solution for increasing the sustainability of the building in the form of GSHP which will also help in the subsequent reduction of UHI and climate change