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A state-of-the-art review on shallow geothermal ventilation systems

with thermal performance enhancement system classifications,
advanced technologies and applications

Zhengxuan Liu , Mingjing Xie , Yuekuan Zhou , Yingdong He ,

Lei Zhang , Guoqiang Zhang , Dachuan Chen

PII: S2666-1233(21)00059-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbenv.2021.10.003
Reference: ENBENV 135

To appear in: Energy and Built Environment

Received date: 10 May 2021

Revised date: 13 October 2021
Accepted date: 15 October 2021

Please cite this article as: Zhengxuan Liu , Mingjing Xie , Yuekuan Zhou , Yingdong He ,
Lei Zhang , Guoqiang Zhang , Dachuan Chen , A state-of-the-art review on shallow
geothermal ventilation systems with thermal performance enhancement system classifica-
tions, advanced technologies and applications, Energy and Built Environment (2021), doi:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbenv.2021.10.003

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A state-of-the-art review on shallow geothermal ventilation
systems with thermal performance enhancement─ system
classifications, advanced technologies and applications

Zhengxuan Liua,b, Mingjing Xiec, Yuekuan Zhoud*, Yingdong Hee, Lei Zhangf,
Guoqiang Zhanga, Dachuan Chena

a
College of Civil Engineering, National Center for International Research Collaboration in
Building Safety and Environment, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China
b
Faculty of Architecture and The Built Environment, Delft University of Technology,
Julianalaan 134, 2628 BL, Delft, the Netherlands
c
School of Architecture and Art, Central South University, Changsha, 410012, China.
d
Thrust of Sustainable Energy and Environment, Function Hub, The Hong Kong University of
Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China
e
Center for the Built Environment, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
f
Xuhui Design Co., Ltd, Zhengzhou 450018, China

*Corresponding author: Tel.: (+852) 5536 8240

Email: yuekuanzhou@ust.hk; yuekuan.zhou@outlook.com (Zhou Y.)
1
Zhengxuan Liu and Mingjing Xie contributed equally to the work

Highlights
 A state-of-the-art on shallow geothermal ventilation for energy-efficient buildings
 Integrated approaches and techniques with synergies for performance enhancement
 Heat transfer mechanism for thermodynamic performance analysis
 Technical limitations, recommendations and future outlooks

Abstract: Geothermal energy with abundance and large quantity can partially cover
building heating/cooling loads and promote the carbon-neutrality transitions. Shallow
geothermal ventilation (SGV) system, with a little initial investment cost, is one of
promising technologies to partly replace the conventional air-conditioning system for
air pre-cooling/pre-heating. This paper reviews applications of SGV system for
improving thermal performance over latest two decades, which mainly includes the
reclassification of SGV system, coupling with other advanced energy-saving
technologies, application potentials for building cooling/heating under various
weather conditions. Heat transfer mechanism and mathematical modelling techniques

1
have been reviewed, together with in-depth analysis on current research trends,
existing limitations, and recommendations of SGV system. Phase change materials,
with considerable latent energy density, can stabilize the thermal performance with
high reliability. The review identifies that optimization designs and advanced
approaches need to be investigated to address the existing urgent issues of SGV
system (e.g., large land occupation, difficulty in centralized collection of condensate
water timely for horizontal buried pipe, bacteria growth, polluted supply air, and high
construction cost for vertical buried pipe). A plenty of studies show that the SGV
system could greatly expand the application scope and improve system energy
efficiency by combining with other energy-saving technologies. This paper will
provide some guidelines for the scientific researchers and engineers to keep track on
recent advancements and research trends of SGV system for the building thermal
performance enhancement and pave path for future research works.
Keywords: Geothermal energy; Shallow geothermal ventilation; Building thermal
performance enhancement; Energy saving; Cooling/heating

1. Introduction
Energy consumption for space cooling/heating in the buildings has significantly
increased over the last several decades, accounting for about one-third of total energy
consumption [1]. The increase in energy consumption, resulting from conventional
air-conditioning systems, not only exacerbates the global energy shortage crisis, but
also adversely affect the environment, especially in ozone depletion and global
warming [2, 3]. To cover the building energy demands, various renewable energy
techniques (e.g., wind energy, solar energy and geothermal energy) have been
introduced and utilized, to partially replace the conventional air-conditioning systems
[4, 5]. Unlike wind and solar energy, geothermal energy is available round the clock,
even throughout the year at the certain depth [6-8]. Besides, geothermal energy is not
geographically restricted, and it can continuously and reliably supply energy
anywhere in the world [9-11]. Extensive results have concluded that the soil
temperature at a certain depth in hot seasons is lower than the average temperature of
2
the outdoor environment, while the opposite tendency can be noticed in cold seasons
[12, 13]. Therefore, the soil at a certain depth can be used to cool/heat the outdoor air
in hot/cold season [14, 15], so as to reduce the building cooling/heating load.
The shallow geothermal ventilation (SGV) system, as one of the most common
utilization forms of geothermal energy, was extensively designed for energy-efficient
buildings and to improve the indoor thermal environment through the underground
soil cooling/heating [16, 17]. In the academia, the SGV system can also be called
earth to air heat exchanger (EAHE) system [18-20], soil-air heat exchanger (SAHE)
system [21-23], earth air tunnel heat exchanger (EATHE) [24-26], ground-air heat
exchanger (GAHE) [27-29] system and underground tunnel ventilation (UTV) system
[30-32], etc.
The SGV system is a promising and effective renewable energy technology for
space cooling and heating of buildings, and many researchers have reported the
energy saving potentials of SGV system from different aspects. In addition, compared
with conventional ground source heat pump system, a plenty of studies have
described that SGV system showed relatively lower construction cost and operating
cost due to the relatively simple design structure and driven equipment of fan when
actually providing cooling/heating capacity to buildings [20]. The above-mentioned
advantages have accelerated the application and development of SGV system in
buildings [33, 34]. At present, studies on thermal performance of SGV system are
mainly conducted from three aspects: experimental investigation [35, 36], numerical
analysis [37, 38] and the combination of two methods [39-41]. The results show that
the SGV system could effectively reduce building energy consumption and indoor
temperature in summer. The cooling performance of SGV system was directly related
to the outdoor weather conditions, buried pipe parameters (e.g., pipe diameter, pipe
length, buried pipe depth, etc.) and air flow velocity in the pipe [42, 43]. In addition,
the thermal performance of SGV system was also dependent on the characteristics of
underground soil (e.g., soil type, moisture content, etc.) to a certain extent [44, 45]. In
winter, due to the limitation of soil temperature (in some areas, the soil temperature at
a certain depth was stable at 18-20 ºC [18, 46]), it was difficult for the only SGV
3
system to meet the requirements of indoor air supply temperature. The combination of
SGV system with air handling unit is useful to reheat the pre-heat fresh air to meet the
requirements of indoor air supply temperature in winter [47, 48]. In order to improve
the utilization efficiency of the SGV system with high reliability and promote the
widespread application in different seasons and different regions, studies have been
conducted on the coupled technologies of SGV system and other energy-saving
systems (e.g., solar chimney [49, 50], solar PV [51, 52], phase change energy storage
[53, 54], water system [55, 56], etc.). The results show that the coupled technology
could greatly improve the application scope and energy efficiency of SGV system in
buildings.
In recent years, some researchers have conducted some notable review works on
the applications of SGV system in various fields. For instance, Ozgener [20]
summarized the studies on SGV system in Turkey at the end of February, 2011. Based
on this review, Bisoniya et al. [57] conducted the experimental and analytical
investigations of SGV system in India in June, 2012. Ramkishore et al. [24] reviewed
the recent progress and discussed the effects on the system thermal performance in
February, 2018. In addition, Agrawal et al. [58] quantified the effects of geometrical
and thermodynamic properties on the thermal performance of the SGV system in
October, 2018. Based on above analysis, however, a systematic and comprehensive
review on the latest application and research progress of the SGV system to improve
building performance is still deficient, especially for the reclassification of the SGV
system based on the design features, integration with other energy-saving
technologies, current research trends and existing limitations and recommendations
for future development of the SGV system in buildings.
One objective of this paper is to comprehensively summarize and analyze the
recent studies and common utilization forms of the SGV system, so as to pave path
for the geothermal energy utilization for building thermal performance enhancement.
Another objective is to provide some guidelines for the coupling application of SGV
system and other advanced energy-saving technologies for achieving nearly zero
energy consumption goals in building energy efficient design. The innovation of this
4
paper lies in the reclassification of SGV system, based on their structural
characteristics, especially considering the vertical buried SGV system. Another
innovation lies in the summary and analysis of the compatibility applications of SGV
system and other advanced building energy-saving technologies, especially
considering the combination of SGV system and advanced phase change energy
storage technologies. In addition, this paper summarizes the current existing issues
and challenges faced by SGV system and its coupled technologies in practical
applications, and provides the rational development suggestions to address the
identified issues. The manuscript is organized as follows. In the Section two, the
reclassifications of the SGV system are analyzed based on the structural
characteristics of buried pipes. The Section three investigates the recent advance in
coupling technologies between SGV system and other energy-saving systems, which
mainly include air-conditioning system, solar photovoltaic, solar chimney and phase
change energy storage system. The Section four mainly focuses on the energy-saving
potentials in cooling and heating systems. Recent research tendency of the SGV
system in buildings is discussed based on the research results of academic
publications from 2000 to 2021 in Section five. In addition, the main findings,
limitations, and recommendations of the SGV system in the practical application for
building cooling and heating are summarized in the Section six. Last but not the least,
conclusions are drawn in the Section seven.

2. Reclassifications of the SGV systems

The SGV system can be reclassified as different types (i.e., horizontal SGV
system and vertical SGV system) according to the structural characteristics of buried
pipes. Each type of the SGV system has its unique characteristics and application
potentials for the enhancement of building thermal performance.

2.1. Horizontal buried-pipe SGV system

The horizontal buried-pipe SGV system is the most common shallow geothermal
ventilation system, which is consisted of horizontal buried pipes in rows. The depth of

5
buried pipe is usually less than 5 m, but the depth is dependent on climatic and
geological conditions [59, 60]. The pre-cooled or pre-heated mixture (including both
fresh air and return air) by the surrounding soil is supplied to the building through the
draught fan, so as to cover the indoor cooling and heating loads [61, 62].
Classification on SGV system with horizontal buried pipes was conducted, in
respect to single-layer configuration and multi-layer configuration based on the
specific location of buried pipes [63, 64]. So far, the SGV system with single-layer
configuration is the most widely used solution for improving thermal performance of
buildings in current studies. The common SGV system with horizontal single-layer
buried-pipes for building cooling and heating are shown in Fig. 1 (a) and (b).

Fig. 1. The common SGV system: (a) Cooling mode; (b) Heating mode.

For the single-layer configuration SGV system, Khabbaz et al. [65] explored a
SGV system connected to a residential building for air cooling, located in hot
semi-arid climate areas. The SGV system was consisted of parallel PVC pipes with a
length of 72 m, inside diameter of 15 cm, and buried depth of 2.2–3.2 m, as shown in
Fig. 2. The experimental results showed that the SGV system was an effective passive
ventilation system for maintaining the indoor temperature at 25 °C. The simulation
results showed that the SGV system could lead to a maximum air temperature drop of
about 18.3-19.5 °C. When the inlet air temperature was 44.6 °C, the specific cooling
capacities of SGV system were 58 W/m2 (one pipe) and 55 W/m2 (three pipes),
respectively.

6
 Fig. 2. Scheme and installation pictures of the SGV system [65].

In order to reduce the land occupation, a multi-row buried pipe SGV system was
proposed by Amanowicz et al [66]. The schematic diagram and experimental set-up
are shown in Fig. 3. The multi-row buried pipes of the SGV system were horizontally
arranged in the soil, and all buried pipes were in the same horizontal plane. The
outdoor hot air entered into the main branch pipe from the inlet, and then flowed into
the multi-row buried pipes for heat exchange with the soil. The cooled air was then
sent to the building through the air handing unit. A series of experiments were
conducted on SGV system built with 3, 5, or 7 parallel pipes. Results showed that
geometrical parameters of the multi-pipe SGV system significantly affected both flow
characteristics and thermal performance. The obtained real seasonal heat gains could
be up to 20% when considering the non-uniform airflow distribution, which was
smaller than seasonal heat gains from the uniform airflow distribution between
parallel branch-pipes.

7
 Fig. 3. A schematic diagram of the multi-pipe SGV system [66].

Hsu et al. [67] experimental studied a SGV system with multi-row buried pipes
to provide ventilation in a cafeteria building under the long-term monitoring condition.
The SGV system was consisted of seven PVC parallel pipes (length of 50×0.25×3.5
m), a sump drain well designed for cleaning air pipes, and a centrifugal fan for
breathing air into the buildings. All pipelines were arranged with 8 ‰ equal slope, and
the distance between each pipe was 0.25 m. The structural design and photographic of
experiment site of the SGV system are displayed in Fig. 4 (a) and (b). Results showed
that, although the underground soil temperature was relatively high, a more obvious
temperature difference between inlet/outlet of the proposed system can be noticed
compared with the previous case studies in summer. Considering the uncontrollability
of the soil temperature, the relatively low specific surface area was suitable for a large
cooling demand in a hot and humid climate region, and the design goal was to
maximize the heat transfer rate rather than the temperature difference.

8
 Fig. 4. The SGV system with multi-row buried pipes: (a) Structural design drawing;
(b) Photographic of experiment site (modified from [67]).
In addition, the SGV system with multi-layer configuration horizontal buried
pipes have been explored in some studies. Li et al. [64] proposed a novel SGV system,
as shown in Fig. 5, with double-layer buried pipes, which could be a solution to save
land occupation and enhance the heat transfer efficiency. In winter, the cold ambient
air was sent to the upper pipe to be heated by the shallow soil, and then flowed
through the lower pipe to absorb the heat from the deeper soil. For this configuration,
the temperature differences between surrounding soil and flowing air could be kept at
a relatively high level. The variation of soil temperature was closely related to the
operation mode and outdoor air temperature. With the increase of the buried pipe
depth, the influence of the operation mode on the heat transfer gradually decreased.

9
 Fig.5. A schematic diagram of the multi-layer SGV system (modified from [64]).

2.2. Vertical buried-pipe SGV system

In recent years, the vertical buried-pipe SGV system has received increasing
attention for thermal performance enhancement and building energy saving [38, 68].
The vertical buried-pipe SGV system was commonly designed with a U-type buried
pipe in a small hole. The depth of buried pipes was generally organized more than 10
m [69]. Compared to the conventional SGV system with horizontal buried pipe, the
vertical buried-pipe SGV system has several apparent advantages. Firstly, it covers a
relatively small land area. In the existing studies, the area of foundation pit of a
vertical buried-pipe SGV system is generally less than 1 m2. Therefore, the system
will not waste the existing land resources in the practical application, especially for
limited land resources in highly densified metropolitans [70]. Secondly, the depth of
buried pipe is high. Compared with the traditional SGV system with the buried pipe
depth at 2-5 m, the vertical buried-pipe SGV system could use the geothermal energy
more effectively and provide a more ideal indoor air-supply temperature. Existing
studies suggest that the buried depth should be more than 15 m (at least 10 m) due to
the relatively stable soil temperature at around 18-20 ºC [2]. Thirdly, the vertical
buried pipe structure is beneficial for the timely centralized discharge of condensate
water. In fact, when the temperature of the buried pipe wall is lower than the dew
point temperature of the air flowing inside the pipe, the condensate will be generated
on the pipe wall. Compared to the traditional horizontal SGV system with the buried
pipe slope of 1-5º, the buried pipe slope of vertical buried-pipe SGV system is 90º.
Therefore, in summer, the condensed water on the pipe wall will be automatically
collected to the bottom of the buried pipe due to the gravity effect and then be
discharged in time, so as to avoid the bacteria growth and guarantee the supply air
quality [69]. In this system, the bottom bypass is mainly used to separate and collect
the condensate water from the air flowing inside the tube. The air in the tube mainly
flows through the upper branch of the bypass. This design ensures that the system can
continue to operate even when the condensate is not discharged timely. A schematic

10
diagram of the vertical buried-pipe SGV system can be seen in Fig. 6.

Fig.6. Schematic diagram of the vertical buried-pipe SGV system (modified from [69]).

With regard to the research of vertical buried-pipe SGV system, Liu et al. [18, 69,
71] explored the underlying heat transfer mechanism, thermodynamic performance,
temperature regulation capacity and economic feasibility. The detailed drawing of
underground pipe structure and construction pictures of the vertical buried-pipe SGV
system are shown in Fig. 7. Results showed that the average air temperature was
significantly decreased from an average of 32.3 °C at the tube inlet to 23.5 °C at the
tube outlet with an average temperature drop of 8.8 °C in summer. The average air
temperature was significantly increased from an average of 7.3 °C at the tube inlet to
16.7 °C at the tube outlet with an average temperature increase of 9.4 °C in winter.
Compared to the conventional SGV system, the vertical buried-pipe SGV system
could exploit the deeper ground soil with a more appropriate natural heat sink/source,
thereby further decreasing/increasing the supply air temperature in summer/winter.
For the vertical buried-pipe SGV system, the simple payback time was 8.2 years.
Compared to a traditional air-conditioning system, the carbon dioxide emission
mitigation potential was 7170.42 kg under a given economic lifespan of 20 years. In
addition, the monetary payback period of the vertical buried-pipe SGV system was
17.5 years.

11
 Fig. 7. The detailed experimental test rig of underground pipe structure and construction
pictures of the vertical buried-pipe SGV system [71].

3. SGV system integrated with other technologies

The SGV system can be effectively combined with other energy systems to
achieve the space cooling and heating. The coupling technology can not only improve
the operation efficiency of the combined energy systems, but also increase the
application scope and energy utilization efficiency of the SGV system, so as to realize
the synergy and complementary functions on combined technologies. The common
coupling technologies with SGV system include air conditioning system, solar
photovoltaic, solar chimney and latent energy storage system, etc.

3.1. SGV─air-conditioning system

As is known to all, for space cooling and heating, a SGV system can be either
operated independently or be integrated with a traditional air-conditioning system for
flexible operations. To improve cooling efficiency, reduce power consumption and
environmental pollution of the conventional air-conditioning system, some
researchers have integrated the SGV system with air-conditioning systems [48, 72].
The SGV system can pre-cool the supply air with a relatively low temperature for
space cooling in summer. In winter, when the ambient temperature is too low to
normally start up the air-conditioning system, the SGV system can preheat the supply
air, normally start up the air-conditioning system and improve the operation efficiency.
In addition, the air-conditioning system can be turned on for the regulation on indoor

12
thermal environment, and can also compensate the intermittent operation of the SGV
system, so as to improve the operation efficiency of the SGV system [73].
In previous scientific literature, a number of interesting research works have
been done, focusing on the thermal performances of air-conditioning system
integrated with SGV system. Soni et al. [74] studied the cooling performance of an
integrated SGV and air-conditioning system in hot and humid weather conditions
(Bhopal), where the ambient temperature exceeded 46 °C in summer, as shown in Fig.
8. The results showed that the energy consumption of the conventional
air-conditioning system was dropped considerably by combining with the SGV
system. In addition, the economic feasibility of the hybrid cooling system was further
verified.

Fig. 8. A schematic diagram of a hybrid system with SGV and air-conditioning (modified
from [74]).
Li et al. [47] proposed a fresh air-handling component, consisting of a SGV
system and a heat recovery unit, to solve the issues of insufficient fresh air and
achieve energy saving in buildings in severe cold regions in China. Results showed
that the maximum indoor temperature produced by SGV system was 22.1 ºC and the
maximum heating capacity was 7718 W during the heating operation period. The
average temperature drop of indoor environment was 13.6 °C during the cooling
operation period. Compared to the conventional system, the dynamic payback period

13
of the proposed system was only 2.38 years and the carbon dioxide emissions could
be further reduced by 82.5%.
Bansal et al. [75] illustrated that the SGV system alone was insufficient for
indoor thermal regulation in summer. The evaporating cooling was necessary to be
integrated with the SGV system for indoor thermal environment regulation. The
combination of SGV system and evaporative cooling system could future reduce the
designed capacity of traditional air-conditioning systems. In the study, a transient and
implicit model was used for assessing the obtained energy-saving of a SGV system
integrated with the evaporative cooling. The results showed that the financial recovery
period of the integrated system was about two years. However, the system with
low-efficiency fan was not feasible due to the high recovery rate. Among the different
retrofit schemes, the internal rate of return of residential electricity price was
52.31%-5.05%, and that of commercial electricity price was 169.49%-23.71%.
Do et al. [76] presented a closed-loop SGV system integrating air source heat
pump (ASHP) system, and the schematic diagram of coupled system can be seen in
Fig. 9. The closed-loop SGV system was used as a ground-coupled return-air duct
system. Compared to the conventional ASHP system, the coupled system would
consume less compressor power for cooling, as the SGV system could partially
pre-cool the air. Thus, the lower air temperature cooled by the underground soil may
lead to large cooling energy saving potentials. In the study, the potential benefits of
the closed-loop SGV system coupled with ASHP were evaluated for cooling energy
use in a hot and humid climate area. Results showed that the SGV system could
provide annual cooling energy savings of 9.6% for Houston and 13.8% of Dallas. The
largest energy saving for monthly cooling was observed in the early cooling season
from May to July in the tested area.

14
 Fig.9. A schematic diagram of an air-source heat pump system with SGV (modified from

[76]).

3.2. SGV─solar photovoltaic (PV) panel system

3.2.1. The fractional energy-saving improvement of the SGV system using solar
PV panels

The common combination form between the SGV system and solar PV panels
can be seen in Fig. 10. In the coupled system, the SGV system integrating solar PV
panels can effectively improve the overall thermal performance, as the solar power
can partially cover the energy demands of the SGV system. A large number of studies
have proved that the coupling system has significant energy-saving potentials in the
practical applications [77, 78].

Fig.10. The common combination form between the SGV system and solar PV panel.
For instance, Yıldız et al. [52] investigated the energy performance of a SGV

15
system, combined with the solar PV panel for greenhouse cooling in Turkey. Results
showed that the average cooling capacity was 5.02 kW by using a 0.7 kW blower. In
this study, the SGV system can operate for 11 hours one day, and the SGV system
power consumption was 8.10 kWh. For space heating and cooling, Nayak and Tiwari.
[78] explored the effectiveness of a SGV system integrated photovoltaic/thermal
(PV/T) system. In the proposed system, the electrical energy generated from PV/T
system is to drive the fan and blower. Results revealed that the air temperature can be
improved by around 7–8 °C during winter season. The yearly thermal energy
generation was 24728.8 kWh, and the annual net electrical energy-saving was 805.9
kWh. A similar system was proposed by Mahdavi et al. [51]. They theoretically
studied the energy performance for an integrated SGV and PV/T system, following
the energy and exergy appraisal theories. The results showed that the PV/T system can
provide electricity generation, but fail to provide heating energy for the greenhouse.
By contrast, the SGV system can provide indoor thermal regulation effect, with the
decrease and increase of indoor air temperature by 9 °C and 8 °C during summer and
winter season, respectively.

3.2.2. The efficiency improvement of solar PV panel using SGV system

The PV efficiency is dependent on the baseplate temperature. The power

generation efficiency decreases with the increase in PV panel temperature. Therefore,
it is necessary to maintain the PV panel at a reasonable low baseplate temperature
[79]. The solar PV panel integrated SGV system can effectively utilize the
underground cooling source to cool down the PV panel, thereby increasing the power
generation efficiency in summer [80]. The basic design principle is that the ambient
hot air is cooled by the buried tube, and then the cooled air is sent into the baseplate
surface, as shown in Fig. 11.

16
 Fig.11. The schematic design of SGV system application for the cooling of solar PV panel.

At present, only several researchers consider the performance improvement of

PV panel systems employing an active geothermal air cooling through SGV system.
For instance, Elminshawy et al. [80] utilized the SGV system to cool down the PV
panels in Egypt. The SGV system was employed to firstly pre-cool the ambient hot air,
and then the cooled air was sent to the back surface of the PV panel to simultaneously
improve power generation performance of the PV panel. Results showed that the
module temperature of PV panels could be effectively reduced from average 55 °C
(without cooling) to 42 °C by using the SGV system at an optimum rate of
0.0288 m3/s. Meanwhile, due to the temperature decrease in the PV module, an
average PV efficiency and output power can be increased by 22.98% and 18.90%,
respectively.
Afrand et al. [81] proposed a novel configuration of the building integrated
photovoltaic thermal (BIPVT) coupling with the SGV system, and the working
principle diagram can be seen in Fig. 12. For the heating mode, the outdoor air was
firstly preheated after passing through the SGV system. Then, the preheated air was
sent into the solar BIPVT collector and was preheated again by absorbing the surplus
thermal energy from the PV modules. The heated air was sent to the building through
the air handling unit to provide heating energy to the indoor environment. In this

17
mode, the PV modules could be cooled consequently, together with the improvement
in solar-to-power conversion efficiency. For the cooling mode, the hot outdoor air was
precooled by the SGV system and was then sent into the buildings by the air handing
unit. In addition, the building exhaust air was sent to the cavity located underneath the
solar PV modules to decrease the solar cell temperature, thereby improving the
solar-to-power conversion efficiency. Results showed that the yearly rate of thermal
energy and electrical energy captured form the coupled system are 3499.59 kWh and
5908.19 kWh, respectively.

Fig.12. The working principle diagram of novel coupled system between SGV system and PV
thermal system: (a) heating mode and (b) cooling mode [81].

3.3. SGV─solar chimney system

In the current academia, only few preliminary studies have investigated the
coupled system, consisting of the SGV system and solar chimney system, to synergize

18
the benefits for both ventilation and cooling in buildings [82]. The operational
principle of the SGV integrated solar chimney system can be seen in Fig. 13, for
ventilation and space cooling. In this system, the SGV system was consisted of a
buried tube with the inlet (positioned at outside) and the outlet (positioned at inside),
and the solar chimney was connected to the indoor environment through a solar
collector [49]. The working principle of the system is that, the air in the solar collector
is heated. Due to the low density of hot air, the hot air can rise from the bottom to the
top of the solar chimney. The migration of hot air will lead to the pressure difference
between the indoor environment and the chimney, and thus the indoor air is inhaled to
maintain the pressure balance. When the ambient air flows through the underground
pipes of the SGV system, it is cooled down by the underground soil through the heat
exchange process, so as to provide fresh cold air to reduce the space cooling load.

Fig.13. Schematic diagram of the SGV integrated with a solar chimney system.

The coupled system between the SGV and the solar chimney system has several
advantages, such as building energy-saving and improvement on indoor thermal
environment. For instance, Li et al. [49] proposed an integrated SGV and solar
chimney system. In the study, the air was driven into the indoor and built environment
through the chimney effect with passive solar energy. The results showed that the
SGV system could provide a maximum total cooling capacity of 3308 W during the
daytime. As the solar radiation was intensified during the daytime, the peak value of
cooling capacity can be reached. The similar research was conducted by Yu et al. [83],

19
with enough cooling energy in the natural mode. However, after one week of forced
air flow test, the cooling capacity of the coupled system decreased rapidly due to the
increase of underground soil temperature. However, it will take more than two weeks
for the soil for thermal recover. In addition, thermodynamic analysis of soil with
thermal response control is necessary to further improve the overall performance.
Maerefat and Haghighi [84] proposed a novel passive solar system, consisting of
the solar chimney and a SGV system, as shown in Fig. 14. The solar chimney was
composed of a glass roof surface which was inclined to the south. After being heated
by the solar radiation at daytime, the hot air will flow upward due to the chimney
effect. The driving force from the flowing air will help to inhale outdoor air through
underground pipes in the SGV system. The SGV system was composed of horizontal
buried pipes with a certain depth. The piping space was designed to be higher than the
heat penetration depth for heat transfer enhancement. The finding showed that the
solar chimney can provide enough thermal energy for buildings.

Fig. 14. Schematic diagram of the coupled system between SGV system and solar chimney
(modified from [84]).
Serageldin et al. [50] conducted the parametric analysis and optimization for a
passive heating and ventilation system in a small-scale building, equipped with a solar

20
chimney and SGV system. By using the three-dimensional quasi-steady
computational fluid dynamics (ANSYS) on system design and optimization, results
showed that the solar chimney can effectively provide reasonable ventilation rate for
indoor space through passive mode. The increase of surface area and aspect ratio of
solar chimney could enhance the heat transfer. In the design of SGV system, the pipe
diameter was the key factor to reduce the pressure drop. In respect to the proposed
system, the optimal inclination angle of solar chimney was between 30 ° and 35 °, and
the optimal length, width and gap were 1.94-1.97 μm, 0.92-0.97 μm and 0.19-0.23 μm,
respectively. Furthermore, the thermal energy performance of a small-scale wooden
room coupled with SGV system and solar chimney in Egyptian conditions [85] was
demonstrated through experimental and numerical studies. The schematic diagram of
the coupled system was shown in Fig. 15. In this study, the operation condition was
divided into two modes. In the Mode 1, the SGV system was combined with solar
chimney without electrical equipment. Hybrid passive and active ventilations with
electrical fans for 24-hour operation are in the Mode 2. Results showed that, under the
operational modes 1 and 2, the average indoor temperatures were less than the
ambient temperature by 5 ºC and 8-9 °C in summer. In the Mode 2, the total annual
power saving of the coupled system was 42.9 kWh/m2, and the carbon dioxide
emission saving was 4.545 tons.

21
 Fig. 15. Schematic diagram of the coupled system with a solar chimney and a SGV system

(modified from [85]).

3.4. SGV-phase change storage system

The combination of SGV system and phase change storage system has gradually
attracted universal attention. The phase change storage component applied into SGV
system can effectively improve the thermal performance through the latent heat
storage and release within a relatively stable temperature range [70]. Zhou et al. [54]
proposed a passive coupled system with PCM and SGV. The PCM was filled between
the buried pipes and surrounding soil, and the system was shown in Fig.16 (a). To
evaluate the cooling performance, a three-dimensional numerical model was
developed using ANSYS FLUENT method. The results indicated that under the

22
extreme condition with the maximum outdoor temperature, the outlet temperature of
the PCM-filled SGV system was approximately 0.83 °C lower than that of the
conventional SGV system. Compared to the conventional SGV system, the
PCM-filled SGV system could improve the cooling capacity by 20.24%. Furthermore,
a cylindrical PCM-filled SGV system was proposed [53] to improve the stability of
supply air temperature and enhance the energy saving effect. In the proposed system,
the cylindrical PCM component was placed in the center of the buried tube, as shown
in Fig. 16 (b). The cylindrical PCM could enhance the heat transfer, and it could also
effectively delay the time-duration for the operational mode transition. Compared to
the traditional SGV system, the daily maximum cooling capacity was increased by
28.55%-39.74%, and the total cooling output was increased by 20.05% for the 20-day
operation.

Fig. 16. The schematic diagram of the coupled system: (a) Conventional SGV-PCM ; (b)
Conventional SGV-cylindrical PCM (modified from [54]).
Liu et al. [86] proposed a novel vertical SGV system integrating the annular
PCM component for space cooling, as shown in Fig. 17(a). The annular PCM
component was placed at the outlet of the SGV system. Results indicated that, the
outlet air temperature fluctuation can be reduced by 31% and 29%, respectively.
Adding annular phase change material at the outlet of the SGV system could reduce
the peak value and fluctuation frequency of supply air temperature, so as to improve
the thermal performance and indoor thermal comfort. The integration of annular PCM
components into SGV system can stabilize the outlet air temperature, whereas

23
construction cost will be increased due to the associated integrations. Liu et al. [70]
also proposed a new vertical SGV system with tubular PCM. The novel integrated
system has several advantages, such as simple geometry, easy fabrication,
convenience for assembling and disassembling, and low-cost, to facilitate the practical
applications, as shown in Fig. 17(b). An experimental test rig was established to
calibrate the numerical model. Results indicated that the tubular PCM component
could effectively reduce the peak temperature and temperature fluctuation for the
outlet air from the SGV system. Furthermore, the average cooling capacity can be
improved with the adoption of the tubular PCM component.

Fig. 17. The coupled system configuration: (a) annular PCM component; (b) tubular PCM
component (modified from [70, 86]).

4. Application of SGV system for thermal performance

improvement
4.1. Application of the SGV system for building cooling
In recent years, numerous studies are to improve the indoor thermal environment
by using the SGV system. The SGV system can be used alone or be integrated with
other technologies for indoor air temperature regulation with energy saving [87-89].
Different applications of the SGV system in buildings are discussed below.
For instance, Li et al. [90] experimentally investigated a two-layer SGV
ventilated system for building cooling during the entire cooling season in China, with

24
land space saving. Results showed that the SGV system could provide considerable
cooling capacity. The total COP of the proposed system was dependent on the
regulated cooling capacity with the range between 1.7 and 27.2. Benhammou et al.
[91] studied cooling effectiveness of the SGV system on two identical buildings in a
hot and arid climate. In the study, one transient model was developed to study the
energy saving potentials of SGV system. Results showed that, when the SGV system
was installed in the thermal insulation buildings, the maximum indoor air temperature
could be decreased by more than 11%, and the reduction rate of indoor air
temperature amplitude was increased to 91%.
Qin et al. [22] proposed a SGV system with vertical buried pipes to utilize the
high-efficient deep geothermal energy to improve indoor environment. The proposed
system was coupled with both annular and tubular phase change storage units, with
advantages for centralized discharge of condensate water, space-saving, small outlet
temperature fluctuation and high energy efficiency. As shown in Fig. 18, the proposed
system can provide space cooling in the hottest month, and the highest drop
magnitude in outlet air temperature was 13.38 ºC. The total cooling capacity in the
hottest month was 185.42 kWh.

Fig. 18. The variation of air temperature at the outlet and cooling capacity of the SGV system
with vertical buried pipes in the hottest month [22].

25
 Ahmed et al. [92] comparatively studied cooling capacity of two different SGV
systems (i.e., with horizontal buried pipes and vertical buried pipes) in a hot humid
subtropical climate. Both vertical and horizontal piping systems were consisted of two
simple PVC pipes with an external diameter of 0.125 m. The buried pipes were
mainly composed of 20 PVC pipes with a diameter of 21 mm in parallel. In the
horizontal buried pipe system, 20 PVC pipes were horizontally arranged in a row. In
the vertical buried pipe system, 20 PVC pipes were vertically arranged in five rows
with different depths. For the two systems, each PVC pipe in each row was separated
by 20 mm from the adjacent pipe. The temperature variations of room with and
without the SGV system based on horizontal buried pipe system and vertical buried
pipe were shown in Fig. 19. Results showed that the decreasing magnitudes of room
temperature were 1.05 °C and 1.82 °C for the SGV system with horizontal and
vertical buried pipes, respectively. The annual maximum energy saving was 579.91
kW and 866.54 kW, and the corresponding maximum annual cost saving was $161.89
(7.93%) and $241.90 (8.82%), for the SGV system with the horizontal and vertical
buried pipes, respectively.

Fig. 19. Temperature variation of with and without SGV system: (a) horizontal buried pipe
system; (b) vertical buried pipe [92].
The application of separate SGV system in buildings may have technical issues,
such as low operating efficiency, difficulty in indoor thermal environment regulation
under extreme weather conditions, and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to combine
the SGV system with other energy-saving technologies to preferably improve the

26
indoor thermal environment and reduce building energy consumption. Nemati et al.
[93] proposed a new hybrid system combing the SGV system and indirect evaporative
cooler as an eco-friendly alternative to replace the conventional air-conditioning
system. In the study, a mathematical model was developed to simulate the dynamic
cooling performance. The results showed that the SGV system integrated with an
indirect evaporative cooler not only decreased water consumption but also
significantly improved cooling performance. In addition, compared to the traditional
system with similar indoor thermal comfort level, the coupled system showed
relatively lower energy consumption of about 62% and water consumption of 45%,
respectively.
Other studies on SGV system for space cooling are summarized and listed in
Table 1. It can be seen from Table 1 that different researchers have carried out a
plenty of studies on the application of SGV system and coupled technologies in
buildings under different regions and climatic conditions, following experimental
investigation, numerical simulation and combination of the above two methods. In
these studies, the practical effect of energy consumption reduction and cooling
capacity improvement of the SGV system for various buildings is analyzed under
different design structures (e.g., single row, multi-row and multi-layer buried pipes)
and geometrical design parameters (e.g., pipe length, pipe diameter and buried pipe
depth). Almost all the results show that the SGV system could effectively decrease the
indoor air temperature, provide the cooling capacity and reduce the building energy
consumption in summer.

27
Table 1. Various applications of SGV systems for building cooling.
Specification of the SGV system
Specifications
Ref. Types of study Location Numbers Diameter Length Depth Main findings
of building
of tubes of tube of tube of tube
[94] Experimental Chongqing, 4 0.16 m 40 m 3m Dimensions of The system could provide an average outdoor air
investigation China 3 m (length) × temperature reduction of 9.12 °C for building cooling, and
3 m (width) × the corresponding average COP was 7.03. Compared to
2.7 m (height) that of the building without SGV system, the average
indoor air temperature decreased by 5.9 °C in summer.
Moreover, the SGV system could reduce the average
building cooling loads by 55.4 W/m2.
[3] Numerical Tehran, Iran 3 0.2–1 m 25 m, 5m Dimensions of The system was able to provide the thermal comfort
simulation 35 m, 4 m (length) × conditions for the test room, and the system could reduce
45 m 4 m (width) × the electrical energy consumption up to 0.360 kW h. In
3.125 m addition, compared to a conventional air-conditioning
(height) system, the SGV system could lead to reduction of CO2
emissions at 361.89 kg in summer.
[95] Experimental Bechar, 1 0.11 m 66 m 1.5 m The system had an excellent potential in reducing the
investigation Algeria building energy consumption and improvement of
building hygrometry in arid regions.
[48] Numerical Napoli, 5 0.2-0.5 20-100 2.5 m The system could effectively improve the indoor
simulation Italy m m environment. Considering the outlet air temperature, the
appropriate tube length was about 80 m due to the outlet
air closed to the undisturbed ground temperature for
different locations.
[96] Experimental Bechar, 2 60 m 1.0 m The system could be used for cooling and natural

28
 investigation Algeria ventilation purposes of buildings. Based on the obtained
results, the buried depth of 1m was recommended in the
installation of SGV system.
[97] Experimental and Jaipur, India 2 0.15 m 23.42 2.7 m For the system with a length of 23.42 m and a diameter of
numerical m 0.15 m, the temperature rise of outlet was 8.0–12.7 °C and
simulation the COP of proposed system varied from 1.9 to 2.9. The
hourly cooling was in the range of 1.2–3.1 MWh.
[83] Experimental and Omaha, 1 0.45 m 57 m 3.0 m Dimensions of The results showed that the coupled system was feasible
numerical USA 19.4 m (length) to provide cooling to the buildings without electricity
simulation × 4.9 m (width) consumption. In addition, it was necessary to control the
× 3 m (height) operation of the system reasonably and consider the soil
saturation, in order to further improve the overall
performance.
[98] Numerical Benevento, 1 0.33 m 50 m 3.0 m Dimensions of The system achieved the best energy performance under
simulation Italy 32.3 m (length) the coldest climate conditions of humid weather and
× 12.8 m humid soil. The maximum energy saving of thermal
(width) × 8 m energy was about 44%, and the maximum energy saving
(height) of primary energy was about 37%.
[99] Numerical Chongqing, 6 0.2 m 40 m 4.0 m Dimensions of The coupled system could provide a cooling capacity of
simulation China 2 m approximately 56.3 kWh on the hottest day. The
(length) × 2 m maximum cooling capacity could be achieved during the
(width) × 4 m hottest hours of a day. The system was beneficial for
(height) reducing the building energy demand.
[100] Experimental and Stuttgart, 2 0.35 m 90 m 2.8 m The SGV system could reach an excellent performance
numerical Germany with the annual COP between 35 and 50 based on the
simulation three year measurements and simulation results. Due to

29
 the limited fresh air flow in these buildings, the SGV
system only removed one part of the load, accounting for
about 18% of the total internal load.
[101] Numerical Marseille, 1 0.52 m 94.3 m 2.59 m The system had a better performance for building cooling
simulation France in the Mediterranean climate. Results showed that the
proportion of renewable energy was 0.92, and the
coefficient of performance was 13.6.
[102] Experimental and Various 2 0.15 m 23.41 2.7 m Two-story The average energy conservation of the SGV system was
numerical cities of m house with 100 different in selected cities with different climates.
simulation Iran m2 in area.
[103] Numerical Guangzhou, 1 0.4 m 60 m 3.75 m The cooling capacity of SGV system increased as the
simulation China diameter of the buried pipe increases. The daily cooling
capacities of the SGV system were 43.2 kW h for the
diameter of 0.4 m and 74.6 kW h for the diameter of 0.6
m, respectively.

30
4.2. Application of the SGV system for building heating

In previous studies, the SGV system has been successfully used for heating and
ventilation in various types of buildings under different climatic conditions [104].
However, due to the limited heating capacity for heat transfer between air and soil, it
is difficult to only apply SGV system to satisfy requirements on the indoor thermal
comfort. Thus, the SGV system is commonly used in hybrid/combined mode with the
air-conditioning or other technologies for indoor thermal environment regulation [105,
106].
The integration of SGV system with air handling unit for space heating has been
widely studied. For instance, Agostino et al. [48] investigated the thermal energy
performance of a SGV system with an air handling unit for space heating of an office
building in winter. The SGV system was consisted of five horizontal circular pipes,
displaced in parallel with a depth of 2.5 m and adjacent space of 2.5 m. The air was
firstly pre-heated by the SGV system and then by the air handling unit, before being
supplied into the indoor environment. Results indicated that the Ottawa city with a
climate of exceptionally cold in winter showed the greatest temperature variation with
the maximum value of 27.4  °C. When the length of buried pipes was 100 m, the
maximum reduction in building energy consumption of 65% can be realized in
Ottawa city.
Dehina et al. [55] proposed a new horizontal SGV system coupled with the hot
water heat exchanger, located at the center of buried pipe. The air flowed through an
annular space between the pipe wall and the internal wall of the pipe. The proposed
SGV system with the natural hot water of 50 °C was applied for space heating of a
100-m2 single building in the Algerian Sahara. Results showed that the SGV system
could provide seasonal primary heating energy demand of about 78%. The total
annual growth rate of primary energy was 23.4%.
Benzaama et al. [107] investigated the heating performance of multi-integrated
renewable energy system, with SGV system and seasonal solar thermal storage, for
nearly zero energy buildings in Algerian climate. In the study, first of all, the energy

31
performance of the combined geothermal system was analyzed. The temperature
variations were shown in Fig. 20 (a) and (b), with respect to outdoor air, underground
water tank (UNT), and outlet air of SGV system, test room using the SGV system
combined with UNT system in December. For the operation periods of 30 days in
December, 2016, it can be seen from the Fig. 20(a) that the outlet temperatures of
SGV system and UNT system were higher than ambient temperature. The temperature
varies from 18.3 to 20 °C for the UNT system and from 18.3 to 24 °C for the SGV
system. However, the outdoor air temperature ranged from 4 to 24 °C. The proposed
system can improve the outlet air temperature by up to 14 °C. From Fig. 20 (b), the
indoor air temperature varied from 18 to 20 °C when the outdoor air temperature
ranged from 4 to 24 °C, leading to a maximum temperature rise of 16 °C for the
indoor air temperature. During the heating period in December, the electric energy
provided by the coupling system of SGV, solar collectors and UNT systems was 435.4
kWh.

Fig.20. Temperature variations in December: (a) outdoor air, underground water tank (UNT),
and outlet air of the SGV system; (b) outdoor air, the test room with a SGV system and an
UNT system [107].
Table 2 summarizes and lists applications of SGV system for space heating in
buildings. From Table 2, some studies on the application of SGV system and coupled
technologies for building heating have been conducted in different regions and
different types of buildings in winter. Results show that the SGV system could
effectively preheat the cold outdoor air temperature and provide the heating potential
for the buildings.

32
Table 2. Various applications of SGV systems for building heating.
Specification of the SGV system
Specifications
Ref. Types of study Location Numbers Diameter Length Depth Main findings
of building
of tubes of tube of tube of tube
[108] Numerical Ajmer, India 2 0.15 m 23.42 2.7 m The system with a length of 23.42 m could provide
simulation m building heating in the range of 4.1–4.8°C as the air
velocity was 2–5 m/s. The heat gain per hour of the
system was 423.36 – 846.72 kWh.
[94] Experimental Chongqing, 4 0.16 m 40 m 3m Dimensions of The system could provide an average outdoor air
test China 3 m (length) × temperature increasing of 5.53°C under heating
3 m (width) × conditions, and the corresponding average COP was 4.26.
2.7 m (height) Compared to control room, the average indoor air
temperature increased by 4.29 °C in winter.
[64] Experimental Harbin, China 4 62 m 2.05 m The system could provide an average temperature
and numerical promotion of 12.4 °C for building heating, and its average
simulation heating capacity was 4665 W while the average power
consumption was 130 W.
[47] Experimental Harbin, China 2 0.31 m 36 m 2.5 m The system could produce the maximum temperature of
and numerical (upper) 22.2 °C during heating operation, and the corresponding
simulation 5.0 m maximum heating capacity was 7718 W. Compared to the
(lower) conventional air-source heat pump system, the dynamic
payback period of proposed system was only 2.38 years
and it could further provide by 82.5% reduction of
greenhouse gas emissions.
[98] Numerical Benevento, 1 0.33 m 55 m 3m Dimensions of The SGV system had been certificated a huge pre-heating
simulation Italy 32.3 m (length) potential in winter. In moderate climate, the outdoor air

33
 × 12.8 m was heated of about 4 °C through the SGV system. In
(width) × 8.0m winter, the minimum ventilation airflow rate were
(height) equivalent and preferable as regards primary energy
requirements. In addition, the preheating function of SGV
system in winter was more suitable for the cold climate.
[109] Experimental Jaipur, India 2 0.1 m 60 m 3.7 m Dimensions of Under steady state operation of SGV system (assuming
and numerical 4.3 m (length) the soil surrounding the pipe of EATHE to be at constant
simulation × 3.65 m temperature), The total air temperature rise obtained by
(width) × the SGV system was 19.6 °C under the steady state
3.05m (height) operation. However, under the transient conditions, the
total air temperature rise would reduce from 19.4 to
17.2 °C after the continuous operation of 24 hours.
[110] Numerical Izmir, Turkey 1 0.56 m 47 m 3m With a floor The overall energy value for the SGV system were
simulation area of 18.4 m2 determined to be 72.10% at a reference environment
temperature of 0 °C. And the corresponding overall
exergy efficiency value was calculated to be 19.18%.
[111] Numerical Bhopal, India 1 0.1016 m 19.228 2m The embodied energy of the SGV system was evaluated
simulation m as 1663.88 kW h, and the maximum heating potential
obtained in January were calculated as 191.06 kW h.
[112] Numerical Morelos, 1 0.15 m 5m 10 m The SGV system could provide a maximum heating effect
simulation Mexico of 6.3 °C in the coldest day in Juárez city, and its heating
potential was not as good as the cooling potential. In
Mérida and México, the maximum heating potentials
were 12.5 °C and 3.2 °C, respectively.

34
5. Recent research tendency of the SGV system in buildings
Annual research publications on the application of the SGV system in buildings
from 2000 to 2021 are summarized to further analyze and predict the research
tendency, in terms of application and development for building cooling/heating in
summer/winter. In the first step, the main keywords were selected based on the above-
mentioned definition of SGV system. Thus, the ‘earth to air heat exchanger, building’,
‘earth tunnel heat exchanger, building’, ‘soil-air heat exchanger, building’, ‘ground-air
heat exchanger, building’ and ‘underground tunnel ventilation, building’ were input in
the search box of title, abstract or author-specified keywords using the advanced
search function based on the website of ScienceDirect. Then, the published papers
were counted every year based on the search results. Table 3 and Fig. 21 show the
search results of the academic publications about the application of SGV system in
buildings.
Table 3. The selected academic publications about the application of the SGV system in
buildings.
The input keywords
Earth to air heat Earth tunnel Soil-air heat Ground-air heat Underground
Year
exchanger, heat exchanger, exchanger, exchanger, tunnel ventilation,
building building building building building
2021 16 2 4 9 2
2020 23 0 12 17 0
2019 15 2 10 9 3
2018 16 2 9 13 0
2017 10 2 5 9 1
2016 5 0 4 14 2
2015 11 1 4 10 2
2014 7 2 7 8 0
2013 9 0 3 7 0
2012 4 2 4 7 0
2011 1 0 3 5 0
2010 6 0 0 6 0
2009 3 0 1 3 0
2008 3 0 3 3 0
2007 3 0 0 3 2
2006 6 0 2 3 0
2005 2 0 0 1 1

35
 2004 3 1 0 1 0
2003 4 1 2 5 0
2002 1 0 1 0 0
2001 1 0 1 0 0
2000 3 0 1 0 0
Total 152 15 76 133 13

55
52
50
45
40 39
40
Number of publications

35 33
30 28 27
24 25
25
19
20 17

15 12 11 12
8 9 9
10 7
2 5 4
5 2

Year

Fig.21. Yearly variation in the number of published papers from 2000 to 2021. (Source:

ScienceDirect)

It can be seen from Table 3 that total 389 papers are published, in terms of the
application of SGV system in the field of building energy conservation since 2000.
The earth to air heat exchanger, ground air heat exchanger and soil air heat exchanger
are the common applications of the SGV system in academia. As shown in Fig. 21,
the number of research papers on the application of the SGV system in buildings
fluctuates occasionally in some adjacent years, but the overall trend is gradually
increasing, especially in recent two years. It should be noted that the deadline for data
statistics of the number of published papers on the application of the SGV system in
buildings is April 26 th, 2021. These data also indicates that the SGV system has
received increasingly attention and recognition for reducing building energy

36
consumption and improving indoor environment.
Based on the above research, the application of the SGV system was mainly in
India [57], Turkey [20] and other arid regions ten years ago, which was commonly
used to reduce the indoor air temperature [113]. In recent years, more and more
attentions have been paid to the application and research of the SGV system in China,
and the number of published papers has also shown an obvious increasing trend [114].
At present, the domestic research on SGV system is mainly divided into the
traditional horizontal buried pipes and vertical buried pipes to regulate the indoor
thermal environment. The main research institutes of the SGV system with horizontal
buried pipes mainly include Chongqing University [115-117], Harbin Institute of
technology [47, 64, 114], Southwest Jiaotong University [118] and Xi'an University of
Architecture and Technology [119, 120]. The research institute of the SGV systems
with vertical buried pipes mainly includes Hunan University [69-71].
It can be seen from the existing research that the application of the SGV system
in buildings mainly focuses on the air pre-cooling in summer, and the air preheating in
winter. The main reason is that the temperature of underground soil at a certain depth
is generally stable at 18-20 ºC [58]. In summer, the soil can effectively reduce the
supply air temperature, so as to achieve the indoor air supply temperature standard of
buildings. However, the soil temperature will be difficult to heat the outdoor
temperature to reach the indoor air supply temperature in winter. In recent years,
studies on SGV system applications in winter have also been gradually carried out
[24]. The SGV system is combined with other energy-saving technologies in winter
for performance improvement, e.g., air source heat pump, solar water heating system,
solar chimney, heat storage tank, etc. [121-123], in respect to operation efficiency
improvement, and the reheating of the outlet air temperature to reach the designed
supply air temperature.
From the above analysis, it can be seen that the current research on SGV system
is not limited to the improvement of building thermal performance and the regulation
of indoor thermal environment. In recent years, many researchers focused on the wet
air convective heat transfer of the SGV system, with the parametrical analysis on air
37
humidity [95, 124]. In addition, some research works have been conducted for the
simplification of the SGV system model [33, 125]. In other words, an accurate and
simple model with high performance prediction accuracy and efficiency is being
explored by researchers.
On the other hand, the research scope of the SGV system coupling with other
energy-saving technologies is gradually expanding, so as to enhance the practical
application potential of the SGV system in buildings. It is necessary to effectively
utilize the shallow geothermal energy to improve the energy efficiency of the
integrated system, with complementary functions on SGV system [126]. In a word,
the energy-saving potential and temperature regulation ability of the SGV system in
buildings have been fully proved. Therefore, the SGV system and its coupling
systems with other energy-saving technologies will have a widespread application
prospect in the field of building energy conservation. In addition to the papers
searched from the website of https://www.sciencedirect.com, the SGV system has also
received a lot of attention and consideration for practical engineering applications and
commercialization. As can be seen from the website of https://www.rehau.com, the
simple SGV system has currently been used in different countries and regions, and
related products have also been developed. Therefore, it can be seen that SGV system
has a great potential for practical applications in buildings.

6. Discussions, main findings, limitations and recommendations

Based on above-mentioned literature review, it can be seen that the SGV system
with the horizontal buried-pipe are still the most common forms of shallow
geothermal ventilation. The SGV system with horizontal buried pipes and its
combination with other energy-saving systems account for more than 90% of the
current published works. Almost all studies show that the SGV system can effectively
reduce building energy consumption and improve the indoor thermal environment
[127, 128]. However, the technical issue in the practical application of the SGV
system with horizontal buried pipes is to solve the condensate water along the pipe
wall in summer [73, 129]. The long-term condensate water adhering to the pipe wall

38
will lead to the issue of mold breeding and bacteria growth in the pipe, affecting the
air supply quality of the SGV system for indoor environment. At present, many
researchers focused on the increase of the buried pipe slope to centrally collect
condensate water and to discharge the collected water in time. However, the increase
of buried pipe slope will propose techno-economic challenges, such as associated cost
and construction difficulty. For example, for the buried pipe with a length of 40 m,
when the buried pipe slope is 5º, the height difference between the beginning and the
end of the horizontal part of the buried pipe can be calculated over 3.5 m. In addition,
the existing models assume that the buried pipes are in the same horizontal plane, and
the thermal physical parameters are the same of the surrounding soil, whereas the
ignorance of the height difference due to the tilted buried pipes will reduce the
prediction accuracy. In practical application, some researchers have set the buried
pipe slope as 1-5º. Obviously, this slope of the buried pipe is relatively small, so it is
still difficult to discharge the condensate water adhering to the pipe wall in time. In
addition, the common horizontal buried pipe system has a large land occupation area
with the foundation pit area higher than 50 m2, especially for the single row buried
pipe system, which will greatly limit the use of horizontal buried pipe system in the
highly densified metropolitans, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and so on [130, 131].
Although some researchers have proposed the use of multi-row or multi-layer buried
pipe system to solve the problem, the land occupation area is still large, and the
construction cost is high [132]. The above existing problems in the practical
application have become the non-ignorable barriers and technical limitations for the
large-scale implementation of the SGV system.
In order to solve the above issues, in recent years, some researchers have
proposed a SGV system with vertical buried pipes [38, 69, 70]. Results showed that
the SGV systems with vertical buried pipes can quickly collect the condensate water
from the pipe wall and discharge it in time with the slope of 90º. Meanwhile, in the
construction process of the SGV system with vertical buried pipes, the land
occupation area is relatively small due to the foundation pit with the diameter
commonly lower than 1 m. In addition, due to the deep depth of vertical buried pipes,
39
the underground soil can be used as an ideal heat source to continuously provide the
required load for the buildings, with independence on outdoor ambient temperature,
temperature distribution and heat moisture coupling transfer law in the underground
soil due to the rainy weather. However, due to the lack of practical application of the
SGV systems with vertical buried pipe, there is no mature design and construction
method, and the construction process is difficult with high construction cost.
Therefore, more studies should be conducted about how to timely collect the
condensate water from the SGV system to avoid the bacteria growth, and how to
reduce the construction difficulty and construction cost of the SGV system with
vertical buried pipes. In the study of SGV system, it is also important to consider that
the radon gas from the underground soil will harm people's health [133]. Therefore,
the flowing air cannot directly contact with the underground soil in practical
applications. Most of the existing studies have considered using stainless steel, PE or
PVC pipes for underground buried pipes, to avoid direct contact between flowing air
and underground soil. However, this is also a problem that must be paid attention in
the future research and practical application of SGV system.
Based on the above literature review, the SGV system, if properly designed,
could be a feasible and economical option to replace the conventional air-conditioning
systems in various climates. However, in extreme weather conditions, the SGV
system cannot provide adequate cooling/heating capacity for indoor thermal
environment regulation. In recent years, the combination of the SGV system with
other energy-saving technologies (e.g., air source heat pump, solar chimney, solar
photovoltaic and photothermal, etc.) for indoor thermal regulation becomes a hot
research topic [83, 134, 135]. According to the research results from the existing
literature, the SGV system could effectively improve the operation efficiency of other
energy-saving technologies, and promote practical application scopes. Likewise, the
integrated energy-saving technologies could synergistically overcome the incapability
of the only SGV system in indoor thermal environment regulation. For example,
only SGV system fails to provide designed supply air temperature due to the limited
heat transfer capacity between the soil and the air in winter. In the research of these
40
coupling technologies, the SGV system is commonly used under a long-term
operation state, and few studies consider the intermittent operation of the SGV system.
The long-term continuous operation of the SGV system will lead to the
heating/cooling accumulation in the soil around the buried pipe in summer/winter, and
the heating/cooling accumulation is difficult to transfer to other soil layers in time,
resulting in the gradual decrease of the system operation efficiency [136, 137]. Thus,
future research should consider the combination of the SGV system and other indoor
thermal environment regulation technologies (e.g., PCM wall, night ventilation
technology), so as to realize the intermittent operation of the SGV system and to
achieve high-efficient shallow geothermal energy utilization through ventilation
technology. In addition, it is also possible to integrate SGV system with other
energy-efficient systems in the future, such as district energy systems based on
hydrogen energy storage. According to the energy demands of buildings in different
regions, a set of integrated design strategies for coupling SGV system with
high-efficiency energy systems are necessary be proposed, so as to further expand the
application of SGV system in buildings.

7. Conclusions
This paper reviews the state-of-the-art on shallow geothermal ventilation systems
for building thermal performance enhancement from five different aspects. It can be
concluded that the SGV systems’ utilization in buildings has received increasing
attention in recent years. Almost all studies show that the SGV system is an efficient
and reliable energy-saving technology to provide cooling capacity and reduce energy
consumption of buildings in summer. In addition, some studies show its heating and
pre-heating application potential for living space. This paper can also be concluded
that SGV system with horizontal buried pipes basically accounts for more than 90%
of the current published studies. However, there are some issues in its practical
applications, e.g., occupation on large land area, difficulty in centralized treatment of
condensate water timely, bacteria growth and low supply air quality. Although the
SGV system with vertical buried pipes could provide small land occupation and easy

41
treatment of condensate water, it has a relatively high investment cost. Therefore, the
techno-economic optimization studies on SGV system with vertical buried pipes need
to be conducted to increase the practical application potential in the future works. In
addition, the SGV systems could greatly improve its application scope and system
energy efficiency by combining with other energy-saving technologies, such as solar
chimney, solar PV, solar hot water, phase change storage, and ventilation roof, which
should be emphatically considered in the future research of SGV system.
Declaration of interests

☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

☐The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be
considered as potential competing interests:

Acknowledgements
The authors will be very thankful for the support from the Hunan University, Central
South University, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and
University of California.

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 Shallow geothermal ventilation (SGV) system in energy-efficient buildings

Integrated Practical Limitations,

Classifications research tendency &
techniques applications
recommendations

SGV─air-conditioning Advanced modelling

Horizontal system techniques
buried-pipe SGV Space heating
SGV─solar
system photovoltaic (PV)
panel system Parametric analysis

SGV─solar chimney
system Single and
Vertical buried-pipe multi-objective
SGV-phase change Space cooling
SGV system optimisations
storage system

Applications

51