Vertical Closed Loop System
RHI Energies has the in-house capability to design and engineer a complete turnkey package from the design of the bore field, using the latest design software package, through to the supply and installation of the complete bore field pipework including the heat pumps. Upon completion of the installation RHI Energies then flushes and commissions the system ready for operation.
Starting with the initial client consultations and feasibility reviews RHI Energies models a geothermal system based on the parameters available for site specific needs.
Summary of Technologies:
A vertical closed loop ground source geothermal system comprises of vertical HDPE pipes inserted into the ground to depths of up to 200m. The final depth of the loop depends upon the geology of the ground, the thermo conductivity levels of the soil, the heat and rejection absorption requirements and the load profile for the building.
Using the latest design software RHI Energies is able to model the ground loop based on a building load profile to enable the ground loop to be designed to achieve high COP’s via the ground source heat pumps.
The ground source pipe work system carries water from the ground (the heat collector / rejecter) to a high efficiency ground source heat pump to provide the building with either hot water for the heating systems or domestic hot water for washing purposes, and then chilled water for cooling.
The heat pump takes the energy that has been stored from the ground via the ground loops and provides hot water to the building. The heat pump can then be switched into “reverse cycle” mode and will then reject heat energy into the ground loops so as to provide cooling to the building during the summer months.
RHI Energies offers
- Non fee early evaluations by project providing key information such as geological information, bore field sizes and costs of vertical systems to its clients
- Assistance with C02 and energy assessment for planning
- Thermal conductivity testing to evaluate ground conditions prior to finalising the overall system design
- Confirmation of specification of system requirements and fully detailed modelled designs
- Drilling of the vertical bore holes and installation of the geothermal looping
- Installation of all external geothermal pipe work so as to connect the bore field to the internal systems
- Supply and installation of the ground source heat pump hydraulic circuit including valved header arrangements, heat pumps, geo circulation pumps, pressurisation sets, dosing systems, expansion vessels etc
- Final testing and flushing of the complete geothermal circuit
- Filling, dosing and verifying the % of glycol within the system
- Final commissioning of the system for client use
- Dedicated installed IOMs
- Training of the client and its representatives in the operation of the system and equipment
Key Benefits
- Suitable for residential, commercial and retail applications
- Design for building loads anywhere from 10kw to 5000kw
- Highest possible energy efficiency
- Highly flexible system solution due to the modular design
- Suitable for projects in the UK and abroad
- Extremely low maintenance
- Efficiency of system can be guaranteed all year round as the temperature underground is constant compared to air cooled systems that have variable ambient temperatures
- Low payback periods in life cycle
- No fumes, no flues, no fuel stores
- No building structural requirements (or structural costs) to support geothermal systems as these are all installed below ground and there is no requirement for large internal plant spaces or roof plant areas
- System has no visible or noise impact as it is installed below ground. There are no line of sight or acoustic screens and planning is simplified
- 50 years lifecycle on bore field pipework
- Systems qualify for the Renewable Heat Incentive
- Closed loop systems do not have the Environmental Agency regulatory controls that open loop systems do. Therefore the closed loop systems are generally faster in both design and installation
System Options
- Simultaneous heating and cooling heat pumps
- Water to direct expansion (VRF) solutions
- Heat recovery heat pumps
- Passive and active free cooling options
- Single or double closed loop systems
- Loop depths to 200 meters so as to limit footprint of bore field
- 60 degree C domestic hot water supply
- Solar water pre heat for ground loop optimisation.
- Hybrid systems optimising dry coolers
- Integrated ice storage cooling capabilities to reduce peak loads