Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada
Among the various approaches to agriculture, urban greenhouse farming has gained attention for its ability to address food security and disruptions to global food supply chains. However, the increasing impact of climate change and global warming necessitates sustainable methods for heating and cooli...
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MDPI AG
2023-07-01
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Series: | Energies |
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Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/15/5596 |
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author | Xavier Léveillée-Dallaire Jasmin Raymond Jónas Þór Snæbjörnsson Hikari Fujii Hubert Langevin |
author_facet | Xavier Léveillée-Dallaire Jasmin Raymond Jónas Þór Snæbjörnsson Hikari Fujii Hubert Langevin |
author_sort | Xavier Léveillée-Dallaire |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Among the various approaches to agriculture, urban greenhouse farming has gained attention for its ability to address food security and disruptions to global food supply chains. However, the increasing impact of climate change and global warming necessitates sustainable methods for heating and cooling these greenhouses. In this study, we focused on the potential of slinky-coil horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHEs) to meet the energy demands of urban greenhouses, assuming they are installed beneath the greenhouse to optimize space utilization. Climate data, an energy consumption profile for a greenhouse being designed in La Pocatière (Québec, Canada) and in-situ ground thermal properties assessments were used to build numerical models using FEFLOW and to evaluate the performance of the HGHEs simulated. Four scenarios were simulated and compared to a base case, considering the greenhouse’s maintenance of a constant temperature above an HGHE limited to the greenhouse’s dimensions. Our findings reveal that a minimum of 7.1% and 26.5% of the total heating and cooling loads of a small greenhouse (133 m<sup>2</sup> area) can be covered by HGHEs installed at a 1.5 m depth when there is no greenhouse above. When installed under a greenhouse with a constant inside temperature of 21 °C, the coverage for heating loads increases to 22.8%, while cooling loads decrease to 24.2%. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the constant temperature in the greenhouse reduces the system’s reliance on surface temperature fluctuations for both heating and cooling, albeit with reduced efficiency for cooling. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:28:03Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-1ed771321da84cd9ad57bda45f358478 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1996-1073 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-11T00:28:03Z |
publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
publisher | MDPI AG |
record_format | Article |
series | Energies |
spelling | doaj.art-1ed771321da84cd9ad57bda45f3584782023-11-18T22:50:17ZengMDPI AGEnergies1996-10732023-07-011615559610.3390/en16155596Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, CanadaXavier Léveillée-Dallaire0Jasmin Raymond1Jónas Þór Snæbjörnsson2Hikari Fujii3Hubert Langevin4Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 490 rue de la Couronne, Québec, QC G1K 9A9, CanadaCentre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, 490 rue de la Couronne, Québec, QC G1K 9A9, CanadaIceland School of Energy, Reykjavik University, 102 Reykjavík, IcelandGraduate School of International Resource Sciences, Akita University, Akita 010-8502, JapanGéotherma Solutions Inc., Québec, QC G1K 9A9, CanadaAmong the various approaches to agriculture, urban greenhouse farming has gained attention for its ability to address food security and disruptions to global food supply chains. However, the increasing impact of climate change and global warming necessitates sustainable methods for heating and cooling these greenhouses. In this study, we focused on the potential of slinky-coil horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHEs) to meet the energy demands of urban greenhouses, assuming they are installed beneath the greenhouse to optimize space utilization. Climate data, an energy consumption profile for a greenhouse being designed in La Pocatière (Québec, Canada) and in-situ ground thermal properties assessments were used to build numerical models using FEFLOW and to evaluate the performance of the HGHEs simulated. Four scenarios were simulated and compared to a base case, considering the greenhouse’s maintenance of a constant temperature above an HGHE limited to the greenhouse’s dimensions. Our findings reveal that a minimum of 7.1% and 26.5% of the total heating and cooling loads of a small greenhouse (133 m<sup>2</sup> area) can be covered by HGHEs installed at a 1.5 m depth when there is no greenhouse above. When installed under a greenhouse with a constant inside temperature of 21 °C, the coverage for heating loads increases to 22.8%, while cooling loads decrease to 24.2%. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the constant temperature in the greenhouse reduces the system’s reliance on surface temperature fluctuations for both heating and cooling, albeit with reduced efficiency for cooling.https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/15/5596ground-source heat pumphorizontal ground heat exchangerssustainable energynumerical simulationgreenhouse heating systemsenergy efficiency |
spellingShingle | Xavier Léveillée-Dallaire Jasmin Raymond Jónas Þór Snæbjörnsson Hikari Fujii Hubert Langevin Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada Energies ground-source heat pump horizontal ground heat exchangers sustainable energy numerical simulation greenhouse heating systems energy efficiency |
title | Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada |
title_full | Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada |
title_fullStr | Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed | Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada |
title_short | Performance Assessment of Horizontal Ground Heat Exchangers under a Greenhouse in Quebec, Canada |
title_sort | performance assessment of horizontal ground heat exchangers under a greenhouse in quebec canada |
topic | ground-source heat pump horizontal ground heat exchangers sustainable energy numerical simulation greenhouse heating systems energy efficiency |
url | https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/15/5596 |
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