Abstract
Earth to air heat exchanger EAHE is a renewable technique based on a geothermal source. Arid regions are characterised by hard winter and summer weather conditions, which lead to a large thermal discomfort for the big part of the year. In this paper, we study by experiments the performance of stand-alone earth-to-air heat exchanger without external devices (fans, etc.), but only with the local climatic conditions of the region of Bechar (located in the Southwest of Algeria). The EAHE contains a PVC pipe with 66 meters of length and 110 mm of diameter, and it is buried at a depth of 1.5 m in an agriculture zone, where the annual undisturbed sub-soil at 1.5 m is 28°C. The stand-alone EAHE has the capacity to raise the air temperature by 10°C in the heating regime and reduce it by 11.9°C in the cooling regime. Furthermore, the relative humidity is raised by19% in the humidification regime and reduced by 27% in the dehumidification regime. The daily working regime was: 62.5% of heating (from 00h to 08h and from 18h to 23h) and 37.5% of cooling (from 09h to 17h) for the thermal regime, 62.5% of dehumidification (from 00h to 09h and from 18h to 23h) and 37.5% of humidification (from 10h to 17h) for the hygrometric regime. The stand-alone EAHE technique presents a great potential for the pre-heating, pre-cooling, and natural ventilation of dwellings and buildings in arid regions.
Highlights
Arid regions like the South of Algeria are known for a large period of discomfort, which requires at least five months of cooling in the summer season
The daily thermal analysis of the stand-alone EAHE showed that the daily work regime of the system is as follow: From 00h to 08h: Heating regime The outside air temperature was low, it entered from the EAHE inlet and passed through the device
Geothermal presents an advantageous energy source that can be used for many purposes, such as the production of electrical or thermal energy, use as a heat source or sink for building heating and cooling and many other applications
Summary
Arid regions like the South of Algeria are known for a large period of discomfort, which requires at least five months of cooling (from May to September) in the summer season. Bansal et al [57] studied the effect of the soil type with different values of conductivity (0.52, 2.0, and 4.0 W/m.K) on the efficiency of airground heat exchanger with 100 m length, 0.2 m diameter, and air velocity of 5 m/s in the hot and dry region of Ajmer (India). They found that the air outlet temperatures were. The inlet section has faced the North and the outlet section is directed to the South
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