Milestone 2:

Final Design Report

ENES 232 Section 0302
Jane Gorman
Sylph Illaeko
Amelia Nur
 1. Project Scope and Preliminary Design Report

A. Stakeholder Analysis

● Home/land owner: Geothermal heat pumps can provide increased energy efficiency and reduced
energy costs after a period of time.
● Engineering/ Manufacturing Company: Benefits when people purchase a geothermal
heating/cooling system.
● Landscapers: Help determine best installation method for geothermal heating systems while
minimizing disturbance to landscape.
● Central Government: Integration of geothermal heating systems could aid in reaching
environmentally friendly energy targets.
● Climate Activists: Geothermal heating systems are a very environmentally friendly alternative to
many other heating systems. Therefore, climate activists are typically huge proponents of
geothermal heating systems.

B. Economic Feasibility/Facility Siting

According to Forbes Home, the average cost of installing a 3.5 ton geothermal heat pump system for a
residential home can be estimated to be around $17,500 [5]. Eventually, the savings of the geothermal
system pay for the upfront costs of installing a geothermal system after about 3-10 years, around 5 years
[5][6].

Note that “true CO2 emission reduction results only when heat pump systems are mainly installed during
renovations” [8]. It is best to install geothermal heat pumps during renovations to offset carbon emissions
as much as possible. For running geothermal heat pumps, the average carbon output of 10,000 new units
in a year is 22,500 tons of new CO2 a year, or 0.225 tons per single geothermal heat pump [8]. However,
note that this is the carbon footprint for running systems, not the installation alone.

The typical homeowner who can install a geothermal heat pump system into their home is someone with
the economic means and who lives in an area with the landscape to support one. Since installing a
geothermal heat pump costs around $17,500, you would find these in upper middle class to upper class
households [5][7]. Since geothermal heat pumps do not rely on fossil fuels, someone interested in
investing so much money is probably someone who is more environmentally conscious. Also, warmer
climates are necessary; Forbes Home says “you should only consider a heat pump if temperatures
generally remain above 40 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter” [5].

For someone renting an apartment, installing a geothermal heat pump would likely not be feasible for a
single unit, rather for an entire building, which is not a decision that an individual renter could make.
Apartment renters tend to be lower income and/or younger, so we would expect that those installing
geothermal heat pumps would also be older, since they may have more money saved over time.
Warmer climates, like the South of the U.S., would be good locations for geothermal heat pumps because
they consistently are above 40 degrees, and in suburban areas (where there is ground/backyard to set up
the heat pump). A busy city with underground metros, etc. would be much more difficult to set up an
effective heat pump in.
C. Refrigerant Choice
Our refrigerant of choice is R454b, a mixed refrigerant in the second generation of post-Montreal
Protocol refrigerants. Out of the mixed [x]fluorocarbon refrigerants, R454b is the best choice on a basis of
environmental impact by a significant margin. Ammonia and CO2, while they are high-efficiency and
have minor environmental impacts, are both very difficult to handle materials – CO2 needs pressures
much higher than other refrigerants [4], and Ammonia is both toxic and highly flammable [2], leaving
both of these out of the question when homeowners may put off maintenance on their heat pump units for
long enough their safety concerns could become severely hazardous. Thus, [x]fluorocarbon refrigerants
are the best refrigerant class of choice for this project.

R454b also has minor ozone depletion potential compared to some of the [x]fluorocarbon refrigerants,
such as R22, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon which has been phased out under the Montreal Protocol [3]. On
the basis of global warming potential, the [x]fluorocarbon refrigerants as a class have the highest
potential, with up to 2000 times the GWP of CO2. R454b is the lowest GWP of the [x]fluorocarbon
refrigerants, having a GWP of 78% less than the refrigerant it is set to replace: R410a. [1] While
offgassing remains a concern from the heat pump system, the significant pollution factors compared to
R454b make it the obvious choice of the [x]fluorocarbon refrigerants.
D. Preliminary Design Operating Considerations

a) Temperature Considerations
When passing through the evaporator, the input should not be greater than 10 degrees Celsius, so
an allowable temperature range would be the freezing point of refrigerant R454b (unknown) to 10
degrees Celsius. When passing through the hot water heater, an allowable temperature range
would be 48-100 degrees Celsius. If it were higher than 100 degrees Celsius, the water would boil
and become fully vapor. The output of the hot water heater should not be below 21 degrees
Celsius because otherwise it would not be able to heat air properly. Upon passing through the
forced air system (condenser), the temperature range should be between 21-50 degrees Celsius.
The input and output temperature should be the same, and should not be lower than 21 degrees
Celsius or higher than 50 degrees Celsius.

b) Pressure Considerations
Based on our temperature ranges from part (a) and using refrigerant R454b, an allowable pressure
range of the refrigerant when passing through the evaporator is less than 10.32 bar, corresponding
to a temperature less than 10 degrees Celsius. At the compressor outlet, which is the pressure at
both the hot water heater and the condenser, the pressure should be 13.61 bar or greater,
corresponding to a minimum temperature of 21 degrees Celsius. We obtained these pressure
ranges using EES software.

c) Preliminary System Diagram and T-s diagram

Figure 1: Preliminary System Diagram (“A Home Geothermal Heat Pump”)

Figure 2: Preliminary T-s Diagram

 1.
2. Commentary on Iterations of Design Based on Optimization Techniques
We made one main change in our design from our preliminary ideas. We learned that the original max
pressure (15 bar) was too low to heat the water to 48 degrees Celsius. With a max pressure of 15 bar, the
maximum temperature obtained was 35 degrees Celsius, far below our desired 48 degrees. In choosing a
new maximum pressure, we originally just guessed until we found one that resulted in a temperature
above 48 degrees. After running some parametric studies, we decided that a maximum pressure of 20 bar,
or 2,000 kPa, which resulted in a maximum temperature of about 54 degrees Celsius, was more than
sufficient to heat the water. We decided to keep our design choice of having the refrigerant enter the
throttling valve as a saturated liquid. Aside from the maximum pressure change, which resulted in
changes in our values for COP, power input, and other statistics, we kept most of our design the same as it
was in our preliminary design.

3. Overview of Cycle’s COP, Power Input Requirements, and the

Necessary Mass Flow Rate to Meet the Heat Capacity Needs
Our cycle’s coefficient of performance was found to be 8.282 and the power input was 1.657 kW. The
necessary mass flow rate to meet the heat capacity needs was 0.05748 kg/s. We found all of these values
using EES software.

4. Final System Diagram

Figure 3: Final system diagram

 5. Final T-s diagram

Figure 4: Final T-s diagram, generated using EES software

6. Table of Property Values of Refrigerant

State Temperature Pressure Quality Enthalpy Entropy

(℃) (kPa) (kJ/kg) (kJ/kg-K)
1 8.937 1000 0.1723 257.7 1.204
2 8.937 1000 1 467.7 1.947
3 54.28 2000 N/A 496.5 1.963
4 35.68 2000 1 471.7 1.885
5 35.68 2000 0 257.7 1.195
Figure 5: Table of property values

7. Rate of Entropy Production at Each Component of the System

Process 1-2: 𝜎̇ = 0 (heat transfer)
Process 2-3: 𝜎̇ = 0.01595 kJ/kg-K
Process 3-4: 𝜎̇ = 0 (heat transfer)
Process 4-5: 𝜎̇ = 0 (heat transfer)
Process 5-1: 𝜎̇ = 0.009385 kJ/kg-K

8. A .EES File Upload to Verify System Design

See file with submission.

9. Parametric Study and Parametric Plot Showcasing Optimization of

COP and Power Input

Figure 6: Parametric study values

 Figure 7: Parametric plot displaying the effect of varying P3 on the COP and work input

When deciding what to make our max pressure, we had to take into account that we needed our final
temperature to be greater than or equal to 48 degrees Celsius. Considering this and making an effort to
optimize the coefficient of performance and minimize the work input, we decided on a pressure of 2000
kPa, for a COP of 8.282 and a work input value of 1.657 kW.

10.Maximum Velocity of Refrigerant Through Pipes

The maximum velocity of the refrigerant through the pipes, assuming that the pipes have a 2 inch
diameter at all points, is 0.9209 m/s, occurring at the outlet of the evaporator. The velocity here is
reasonable because it is quite slow, not anywhere even near running speed.

11. Time it will Take for Water to Heat up to 48 Degrees Celsius

We calculated that it will take 11180 seconds, or 3.1 hours for our water to heat up to 48 degrees Celsius
if it starts at 20 degrees Celsius and has a capacity of 36 gallons. We do not have an official test for telling
us whether 3.1 hours for heating is sufficiently fast, but we think that it may be a bit slower than the
average geothermal heat pump's heating time. We conclude that the time it takes for our heat pump to heat
the water to 48 degrees Celsius is sufficiently fast, but not fast enough to be a selling point for our design.

12. Comparison of Our Geothermal Design to a Traditional Heat Pump

Cycle
The COP for a traditional heat pump cycle using R454B pulling energy into the cycle at the evaporator
from the outside air at 0 degrees Celsius is 5.659, which is significantly lower than the coefficient of
performance of the geothermal heat pump that we designed with a COP of 8.282. Moreover, the power
input for the traditional heat pump is 2.543 kW. The power input for our geothermal heat pump is 1.657
kW. Evidently, the geothermal heat pump that we designed is able to operate more efficiently than a
traditional heat pump, as it has a higher coefficient of performance and a lower power input required.

13. A discussion on the benefits and downfalls of your design

While our design has a good (relatively high) coefficient of performance and does not require an
extravagant amount of work input, it takes a while (around three hours) to heat the water to 48
degrees Celsius. This seems to be a bit higher than the average time of about 1-1.5 hours. A
downside of geothermal heat pumps in general is that they are typically more expensive than
general heat pumps. However, over time, the discrepancy in cost is more than made up and the
geothermal heat pump typically ends up being a better investment. Moreover, our choice of
refrigerant, R454B, has a very low negative environmental impact. Compared to other
refrigerants, it is one of the best design choices that you can make for the environment.

14. Attestation of individual contribution

● Jane Gorman: Stakeholder analysis, Preliminary system diagram and T-s diagram, final system
diagram, table listing state properties, parametric studies, benefits and downfalls of design
● Amelia Nur: Economic Feasibility/Facility Siting, final T-s diagram
● Sylph Illaeko: Geothermal-normal comparison, water heat time, maximum velocity, EES, entropy
production, final COP
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