Field test of a ground-source heat pump system and numerical investigation on advanced control strategies

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems have been widely studied for space heating in recent years. Aiming at reducing the power consumption of GSHP, this study focuses on leveraging advanced load-predictive control strategies to minimize unnecessary power consumption in circulating pumps under variable load operation. Taking a GSHP system in an office building as a typical case, a field test was conducted and the heating performance in 2023 was obtained. By comparing measured data with the rated performance, the limitations of the existing control strategy were identified. To investigate the energy-saving potential of new control strategies, a transient GSHP simulation model was developed in TRNSYS. Based on the experimentally validated model, two load-predictive control strategies were numerically studied. By modulating the flow rate and supply water temperature, the two advanced control strategies can achieve energy-saving of 9.9% and 11.0%, respectively.