Direct comparison between horizontal and vertical ground-loop systems for a ground source heat pump system

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The ground source heat pump (GSHP) system is an attractive alternative heating and cooling system for buildings, because of its high efficiency. For a ground source heat pump system, which utilizes the ground as the heat source or sink, a ground loop is installed to exchange heat. There are two ground loop configurations, namely: horizontal and vertical. There are pros and cons for each configuration. The horizontal ground loops are buried horizontally in trenches, usually down to about 2-m depth, and their installation costs are usually lower. Depending on the required ground-loop length, the required land area can be large; therefore, this configuration may not be applicable to urban environment. However, the vertical ground loops are installed vertically in boreholes, usually up to 75 m to 200 m in length, and their installation costs are usually higher. The vertical borehole fields usually occupy less land areas than the horizontal trench fields. Nonetheless, when land area is not a concern, as in suburban and country-side regions, both configurations can be used. There are a number of studies on each ground-loop configuration separately in the open literature. But none has both ground-loop configurations studied simultaneously with the same heat pump for a building.