Comparative life cycle assessment: ground source heat pump system versus gas furnace and air conditioner system

Hunter, Alisha Kathleen

doi:10.32920/ryerson.14665932.v1

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…An LCA often requires many assumptions due to the lack of data and information in different regions and industries. Many studies have investigated the LCA of GSHP systems and compared them to conventional HVAC systems for various regions, including hot, cold, and mild [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. Smith et al [29] investigated the LCA of a GSHP system in a typical home in New Jersey and concluded that the primary environmental impact is the required energy to operate the system over its assumed 25-year life cycle.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hunter [23] showed that GSHP systems benefit from higher energy efficiency, reflecting on the life cycle's operation stage with lower environmental impacts compared to natural gas and air conditioner systems. Based on their results, assuming installation in Toronto and using Ontario's energy grid, the GSHP system is a better option by considering just the operation stage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assessment of Environmental Impacts of Thermal Caisson Geothermal Systems

Abbasi,

Alavy,

Belansky

et al. 2024

Resources

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper investigates the total environmental impacts of a thermal caisson (TC) system by implementing a life cycle assessment methodology. The total environmental impacts consider the comprehensive effect on the environment across two life cycle stages: manufacturing and operation. A comparison between the TC results and two different HVAC systems, including air-conditioning/furnace and conventional ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems, was made by adopting the ReCiPe 2016 methodology. This study reveals that the operation phase is the predominant contributor to environmental impacts across systems, mainly due to its extended duration. Specifically, the operational impacts of GSHPs are substantial, accounting for approximately 87% of total environmental impacts. A TC GSHP system demonstrates a notable environmental advantage, achieving a 79% reduction in total environmental impact when compared to traditional AC/furnace systems. This represents a 21% improvement over conventional GSHP systems. Despite this substantial reduction in total environmental impact, the TC GSHP system shows an almost 5% increase in the resource availability damage category relative to the conventional GSHP, which is attributed to its higher material consumption. These results highlight the TC GSHP system’s superior efficiency in reducing environmental impacts and its potential as a more sustainable alternative in residential heating and cooling applications.

show abstract