A study of the potential of using the Earth to air heat exchanger for cooling and heating of residential buildings in Iraq

Abstract

AbstractThe Earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) is an effective passive cooling and heating system for buildings. This paper studied numerically the potential for reduction in energy consumption for cooling and heating loads for a residence equipped with an EAHE system in the climate of Nasiriya city, which is located in southern Iraq and at 31.7°N and 45.8°E, latitude and longitude, respectively. Also, this paper presents a study about the thermal performance of three types of EAHE systems, system 1, consisting of one layer of EAHE and buried at an available area of house garden with 3‐m depth, system 2, at the same site of system 1, but with two layers of EAHE at two depths, 3 and 4 m, and finally, system 3, buried along the area of the house at a depth of 3 m. First, the built numerical model was validated against experimental results, and the results of the comparison showed good agreement. The electricity consumption for cooling and heating of the house is calculated with and without the EAHE system. The results showed that with using EAHE, there is a considerable saving in energy and saving in the cost of electricity consumption, which reached 376 329 IQD ($301.11) over 1 year for system 2.