Modeling and parametric studies for thermal performance of an earth to air heat exchanger in South East Algeria

At present, energy consumption reduction for heating and cooling buildings is an extremely important task. A great portion of the primary energy is consumed by space heating and cooling in buildings. The need for utilizing more renewable energy in the building sector remains critical for ensuring the energy and environment sustainability. Earth air heat exchangers (EAHE) are considered as one of the current responses to the problem of rational use of energy and comfort in buildings. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance of EAHE systems in arid and semi-arid climate zones. CFD modeling techniques were used to assess the impacts of the parameters of dimensioning on the performance of earth-to-air heat exchanger. The simulation results were validated by comparison with experimental results, and acceptable agreement was gained. The weather conditions of Ouargla city have been introduced through the measurement of the exterior and the underground temperatures in a sunny day. The results show that the earth air heat exchanger (EAHE) systems can help to decrease the indoor temperature from 30°C to 22°C, and the fan power consumption from 15 to 8 watts.