Cheap-GSHPs project article published on the European Commission’s CORDIS website

We are pleased to announce that our Cheap-GSHPs project has been published in an article in the ‘Results in Brief’ section of the European Commission’s CORDIS website.

The information is available in six languages.

Tecnalia publishes information about the Cheap-GSHPs Project on the ECTP platform.

Follow the link to read the entire publication:

Tecnalia publishes information about the evolution of the Cheap-GSHPs Project

Tecnalia (Spain) publishes on its website information about the evolution of the Cheap-GSHPs Project.

“GeoSniff” – New measurement tool for the evaluation of the underground temperatures

Dr David Bertermann and Johannes Müller had the opportunity to join a training event of enoware GmbH which were introducing their new measuring device called “GeoSniff”. This new application is able to do depth and temperature measurements in single-U and double-U pipes of different diameter. FAU & UNIPD-DG have planned to perform some “short thermal respond tests” in selected Cheap-GSHPs test sides to evaluate the underground temperature values.

A data base for European climatic data for energy potentials and mapping

This scientific paper – presented at the session SS 41 “Weather & Microclimate” during the CLIMA 2016 Congress in Aalborg (Denmark) – summarizes the results of one the Cheap-GSHPs project tasks.

Aim of this task is the definition of a ”data base for European climatic data for energy potentials and mapping”. Indeed, climatic data are very important for determining the buildings heating and cooling loads. At the same time they are the basic for determining the ground temperature in the different locations, as well as for determining the potential of using geothermal energy. For promoting the diffusion of GSHP (Ground Source Heat Pumps) a tool for sizing these systems is going to be developed. The paper presents the set up of a consistent database of weather conditions for this tool. This database will allow both expert and non-expert users to identify the climate category mostly similar to the studied location, as well as to estimate the potential energy demand for heating and cooling required by the building. For this purpose, the user will be able to select among different data sets (Test Reference Year for more than 300 locations; calculated degree-days for heating and cooling; Köppen-Geiger climate classification) or even introduce climate data by himself. Moreover, the tool will be implemented with an algorithm, mainly based on the lapse rates method, in order to predict monthly temperature values at unknown locations by using information of a nearby station and the altitude difference between the predictor station and prediction location.

Definition of Standardized Energy Profiles for Heating and Cooling of Buildings

This scientific paper – presented at the session SS 37 “Building Performance” during the CLIMA 2016 Congress in Aalborg (Denmark) – synthesises the results of one the Cheap-GSHPs project tasks.

The paper highlights a database, assembling according to energy profile a certain amount of buildings representative for the typology (single family houses, block of flats, office buildings) with different insulation levels and in different climatic conditions. According to weather analysis among European climatic files, twenty locations have been considered. For each location, the overall energy amount and the hourly and monthly energy profiles for heating and cooling (sensible and latent) have been calculated. The correlations with Degree Days (DD) 2 for heating and cooling have been found, in order to generalize the results aiming to have pre-calculated profiles for sizing GSHPs.

Geological data reinterpretation

During the European Geosciences Union General Assembly held in April 2016 in Vienna (Austria), the results of one the Cheap-GSHPs project tasks was presented together with one of the tasks outcomes in the poster session “Development of strategies towards a sustainable intensive thermal use of the shallow subsurface”.

This poster – “Cheap-GSHPs, an European project aiming cost-reducing innovations for shallow geothermal installations. – Geological data reinterpretation” – shows the definition of generalized geological contexts with regard to the geological variability of the underground conditions in the Cheap-GSHPs partner countries. Therefore, a database of the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC) was chosen to receive some INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe) conformal data of underground properties. A SGDBE (Soil Geographical Database) called PAR-MAT-DOM was selected to be the most practicable data set for receiving relevant underground data in terms of geothermal properties and drillability. PAR-MAT-DOM stands for dominant parent material and is divided into 212 sub-units which contains geological and pedological information of a certain area. To make it more clearly ESDAC provides also a second data base called PAR-MAT-CON1 which consists of nine major groups which were fed by the 212 subunits of the PAR-MAT-CON dataset. With regard to the project issues it was decided to merge these two data sets into a data set which contains the following major groups:

• No Information;
• Igneous &Metamorphic Rocks;
• Consolidated Sedimentary Rocks;
• Unconsolidated Material (undefined);
• Sand (unconsolidated);
• Clay (unconsolidated);
• Gravel (unconsolidated);
• Organic Material.

In relation to these newly defined major groups, called FAU_PAR-MAT-CON, the drillability of the underground was analysed together with the drilling companies involved within this project. As result it is possible to advise, within the limits of specific local conditions, drilling techniques in terms of time and/or in terms of cost to certain areas all over Europe.