Thermal potential of a geothermal earth-to-air heat exchanger in six climatic conditions of México

Abstract

In this paper, the thermal and ventilation potential of a geothermal Earth-to-Air Heat exchanger (EAHE) is studied for six weather in Mexico. The cities for the study and their climate were Villahermosa (hot-humid), Merida (hot-sub humid), Monterrey (dry), Juarez City (very dry), Zacualtipan-Hidalgo (warm-humid) and Mexico City (warm-sub-humid). The thermal behavior of the EAHE was modeled numerically for the corresponding warmest and coldest days of the year for each city and three values of Reynolds number. The 24 hrs simulations were carried out with an in-house code using data every 10 minutes. To get the results, 5,184 computational runs were necessary. The results showed that the EAHE has poor ventilation potential for climates with high levels of humidity such as Villahermosa, while for cities with low levels of humidity such as Chihuahua, the ventilation potential increases significantly, the rest of the cities fall in between. As for its application in Mexico, the results show that the EAHE is highly recommended for dry climates such as at the north of the country and not recommended for humid climates such as at the south and south-east of the country.