Experimental Study of Earth to Air Heat Exchanger Performance in Arid Regions. First Step: In-Situ Measurement of Ground Vertical Temperature Profile for Different Depths

Abstract

Ground vertical temperature profile at various depths is a major key in designing phase of the use of earth heating andcooling techniques for buildings, offices and greenhouses like earthto air heat exchanger (ETAHE), Earth-Air Tunnel (EAT), Ground Air Collector (GAC) and water Quanat.Annual undisturbed soil temperature is very important parameter to investigate earth to air potentials. The present experimental study was conducted in two different sites in South-west of Algeria, in the city of Bechar (arid region) starting from ground surface to 1.5 m depth. The obtained results show that at the ground surfacetemperaturewas 35.2 °C for both sites. At 1.5 m of depth, the temperature was 29.2 °C and 28 °C in site n°1 and n°2respectively. Temperature values remain constant after 70 seconds. The study results serve as a benchmark for other studies and help researchers interested to study this renewable energy source.