Experimental Validation of a Thermal Resistance and Capacity Model for Geothermal Boreholes (OR-16-C047)

Studies have shown that neglecting borehole thermal capacity in annual simulations of ground-source heat pump systems can lead to an overestimation of the energy consumption by 3-4% when the heat pump is operating intermittently. There are various approaches to account for thermal capacity when simulating geothermal boreholes. The objective of this paper is to validate the TRCM procedure. Experimental data from two tests performed at the Canadian Centre for Housing Technology (Ottawa, Canada) are used for this validation.