Evaluation of the Thermal Performance of an Earth to Air Heat Exchanger Connected to a Single-Family House for Air Heating and Cooling Under European Climates

This work aims at investigating the buildings’ air heating and cooling potential of an Earth to Air Heat exchanger (EAHX) in the context of two European climates. A reference building called "SFH45" (single-family house) is chosen for this purpose. The thermal behavior of SFH45 building integrating the EAHX was studied by means of dynamic simulations using TRNSYS software. The impact of the EAHX on SFH45 building was investigated in terms of the monthly heating and cooling thermal loads. The latter are calculated based on a set point of 20 °C and 24 or 26 °C respectively. It was found that the EAHX reduced the building heating loads by of around 11 kWh.m
^-2
/year (24 %) and 6 kWh.m
^-2
/year (91 %) in Strasbourg and Athens climates respectively using a set point of 20 °C. It was found also that the EAHX reduces the building cooling loads by of about 5 kWh.m
^-2
/year and 3 kWh.m
^-2
/year in Strasbourg and Athens climates respectively using a set point of 24 °C. However, it was concluded that the EAHX is more efficient for air heating in Strasbourg climate while it is more efficient for air cooling in Athens climates.