Review of Earth Tube Heat Exchanger

Abstract

Earth-air heat exchangers, also called ground tube heat exchangers, are an interesting technique to reduce energy consumption in a building.They can cool or heat the ventilation air, using cold or heat accumulated in the soil. Several papers have been published in which a design method is described. Most of them are based on a discretisation of the one-dimensional heat transfer problem in the tube. Three-dimensional complex models, solving conduction and moisture transport in the soil are also found. These methods are of high complexity and often not ready for use by designers. The temperature of earth at a certain depth about 2 to 3m the temperature of ground remains nearly constant throughout the year. This constant temperature is called the undisturbed temperature of earth which remains higher than the outside temperature in winter and lower than the outside temperature in summer. When ambient air is drawn through buried pipes, the air is cooled in summer and heated in winter, before it is used for ventilation. The earth air heat exchanger can fulfill in both purpose heating in winter and cooling in summer.