Compression and absorption ground source heat pumps for centralised space climatisation

Heat pumps can fulfil the demand for both winter heating and summer cooling and, if integrated in an energy conscious design of the building and of the climatisation plant, lead to remarkable savings in energy and operating costs. The ground coupling of heat pumps, taking advantage from low condensation/high evaporation temperature allowed by the ground sink/source, achieves great energy performances, although requiring intensive capital cost. The present work evaluates, by means of TRNSYS dynamic simulations, the energy performances of absorption and compression heat pumps, serving centralised heating systems, giving special attention to the ground coupling option, the chance of operating the machine in cooling mode, and the economies of scale achieved in centralised heating systems. Then an economic analysis compares them to traditional and condensing boilers.