The research team Renewable Energy Sources of CTU UCEEB, commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, has compared the efficiency of geothermal heat sources with other sources.
The individual heat sources were compared from an energetic, environmental and economic point of view through a detailed calculation with an hourly step for space heating and hot water preparation in two building variants, namely single-family and apartment building. For the heat sources, especially with regard to heat pumps, we conducted a survey of the technological level available on the current Czech market in terms of their efficiency. For the analysis of heat pumps we used two levels of efficiency (minimum and maximum). At the same time, we have reviewed the available temperature conditions of low-potential heat sources for heat pumps related to the climatic conditions for which the balances of hourly loads were carried out.
In addition to the significantly lower emission production of ground source heat pumps compared to, for example, gas condensing boilers, their cost-effectiveness, especially for family houses, was also shown to be very good compared to air source heat pumps. The cost-effectiveness stems from the fact that ground heat exchangers can be expected to have a significantly longer lifetime than heat pumps alone. In addition, groundsource heat pumps can be advantageously used not only for space heating but also for space cooling of the buildings. Ground source heat pumps with vertical geothermal probes can achieve almost twice the efficiency in high-temperature cooling systems compared to air source heat pumps. In the case of passive cooling, this is more than ten times the efficiency.
The research team Renewable Energy Sources of CTU UCEEB, commissioned by the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, has compared the efficiency of geothermal heat sources with other sources.