The architectural impact of using ground-source heat pumps in commercial buildings in Las Vegas

A series of parametric studies evaluate the architectural impacts on the design and long term performance of ground-coupled heat pump systems over a fixed period of time. The results are applied to a commercial office building in order to assess the net impact of combining various energy efficiency strategies. The conclusion of the comprehensive study is that energy efficient design strongly contributes to a reduction in the required size of a ground-coupled heat pump system. A comparative life-cycle cost analysis validates these results by using the same commercial office building design to evaluate a ground-coupled heat pump system against two other commonly used HVAC systems for commercial building applications; The analysis indicates that ground-coupled heat pump systems perform competitively against other systems in terms of life-cycle costs. The impact on the ground temperature at the ground-loop in such a system rises significantly over the simulation period of 25 years. This condition strongly suggests that ground-coupled heat pump systems that do not incorporate a secondary means of heat disposal such as a cooling tower or absorption chiller may not be the most suitable HVAC system type for commercial office buildings in Las Vegas. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Architecture (MArch)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Architecture

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

2002

Author dc:creator

• Bergman, George Aaron

Contributors dc:contributor

• Adil Sharag-Eldin

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/1449

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-2448