Geothermal Learning System

A compact workstation to teach the fundamentals of residential geothermal heat pumps.

This system allows students to develop knowledge in heat transfer and air conditioning. The exercises are designed to help trainees learn the skills required during installation, operation, and troubleshooting of geothermal heat pumps.

The Geothermal Learning System is designed to maximize learning capabilities by regrouping every subsystem in geothermal home energy installations. It consists of a geothermal heat pump, ground-loop heat exchanger, pumping station, domestic hot water system, circulation pump, control panel, and the instrumentation required to measure the operating parameters of the system.

Students learn the fundamentals of heat transfer, refrigeration, and air conditioning applied to geothermal heat pumps.

Topic Coverage

• Explain the concept of geothermal energy, geothermal heat pumps, ground loops, and the refrigeration cycle
• Plot the refrigeration cycle on a pressure-enthalpy diagram using pressures and temperatures measured on the learning system
• Determine COP and energy efficiency ratio (EER) using measured temperature, humidity, voltage, and current values
• Learn how to characterize a geothermal heat pump system
• Analyze and compare two geothermal heat pump system projects using reports produced by software design tools