Thermal Response Testing of a Multiple Borehole Ground Heat Exchanger

Paper in proceeding, 2010

This paper reports on the thermal response tests performed on the borehole system of a newly developed ground source heat pump test facility. Tests between 48 and 270 hours have been conducted on nine 80 m deep boreholes. Ground thermal conductivity and borehole thermal resistance values have been determined for all nine boreholes using standard evaluation methods. In addition to ground conductivity and borehole resistance values, the undisturbed ground temperatures have also been measured for individual boreholes. A comparison of these three parameters, estimated for nine nearby boreholes, provides useful insight to the accuracy and reproducibility issues of thermal response tests.