Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Geothermics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geothermics

The state of art on the applications, technology integration, and latest T

research trends of earth-air-heat exchanger system
⁎
Kamal Kumar Agrawala, , Rohit Misrab, Ghanshyam Das Agrawala, Mayank Bhardwajc,
Doraj Kamal Jamuwab
a
Mechanical Engineering Department, MNIT, Jaipur, 302017, India
b
Mechanical Engineering Departments, Government Engineering College, Ajmer, 305002, India
c
Department of Renewable Energy, Rajasthan Technical University, Kota, 304010, India

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Earth air heat exchager (EAHE) is a promising passive technique that utilises the constant temperature of the
EAHE system underground soil for heating/cooling of air. The EAHE system possesses several advantages and can be used
Geothermal energy stand-alone as well as in hybrid mode for heating/cooling of air for building and commercial/ industrial ap-
Hybrid systems plications. This article reviews the available literature pertaining to technology integration and applications of
Applications of EAHE system
earth air heat exchanger system in the last four decades and also account for the recent significant developments
Thermal comfort
in EAHE to indicate the emerging trends in the domain. The comprehensive review of the literature suggests that
Passive cooling/heating
a standalone EAHE system can does not cater the requirements of thermal loads entirely and therefore has not
grown much popular and still vying for commercial/ industrial applications, worldwide. The requirement of
auxiliary devices so as to supplement the standalone EAHE system to achieve thermal comfort conditions en-
tailing huge expenses conflicts the economics of the hybrid EAHE systems. The exorbitantly increasing costs of
pipes, land and labour necessitate the paradigm-shift in the major thrust of the research associated with thermal
comfort so as to incorporate the economics of system as a whole to enhance the acceptability of EAHE system.

1. Introduction
With the burgeoning population and thriving economies as well as
energy security and pollution abatement concerns, the researchers
across the globe have been mulling over the new systems-essentially a
transformation in the way the energy is produced, delivered and con-
sumed, thus embarking on sustainable energy future.
The energy requirement for space cooling and heating accounts
about one-third of the total energy demand (International Energy
Agency, 2013). It is expected that the number of building air-con-
ditioning systems (ACs) will increase from 1.6 billion to 5.6 billion by
2050, which will increase the power requirement for building ACs al-
most three times (Birol, 2018). There are various issues in using con-
ventional heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system viz.
its power consumption is high, its use increases the peak load, it is
harmful to the environment (ozone depletion and global warming), and
it reduces the indoor air quality also (Attar et al., 2013; BaNos et al.,
2011; Karytsas and Theodoropoulou, 2014; Omer, 2008). Apart from
this, it also increases the average cost of electricity because additional
captive power plants are needed to meet the peak demand of electricity.
Thus, all these issues with conventional HVAC system lead to a sig-
nificant impetus to the exploration of energy-efficient and environ-
mental friendly systems for building heating/cooling. Thus, passive
heating/cooling systems may play vital role in mitigating the situation
of energy-crisis.
Various passive techniques are employed for heating/cooling such
as solar chimney, wind tower, Trombe wall/solar wall, evaporative
cooling, passive downdraft evaporating cooling, cross-ventilation,
nocturnal cooling, nocturnal radiation cooling, phase change materials
(PCM), thermal insulation, ground coupled heating/cooling etc. The

Abbreviations: AC, air conditioning system; ACC, air-cooled condenser; ACH, air changes per hour; ACHP, air-cooled heat pump; AHU, air handling unit; ASHP, air
source heat pump; BTM, building thermal mass; DW, desiccant wheel; EAHE, earth-air heat exchanger; EC, evaporative cooler; GAHE, ground-air heat exchanger;
GSHP, ground-source heat pump; HVAC, heating, cooling and ventilation; PCM, phase change material; PDEC, passive downdraft evaporating cooling; PVC, poly-
vinyl chloride; PV/T, photovoltaic/thermal; RH, relative humidity; SAH, solar air heater; SAHD, solar air heater duct; SC, solar chimney; SPV, solar photovoltaic;
SRC, supercritical rankine cycle; SRI, solar radiation intensity; STPP, solar thermal power plant; WCHE, water cooled heat exchanger; WT, wind tower
⁎
Corresponding author at: Mechanical Engineering Department, Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur, 302017, India.
E-mail addresses: 2015rme9515@mnit.ac.in, kamal.rightway@gmail.com (K.K. Agrawal).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2019.05.011
Received 4 January 2019; Received in revised form 19 April 2019; Accepted 17 May 2019
0375-6505/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
Fig. 1. Working of passive heating/cooling systems.
working of some passive heating/cooling systems is shown in Fig. 1.
Out of these passive systems, the ground-coupled systems can be used
effectively for cooling in summer season as well as for heating in winter.
1.1. Earth air heat exchanger (EAHE)
The earth-air heat exchanger (EAHE) is a subterranean passive
system which is used to produce heating effects in winter and cooling
effects in summer. It uses soil as a source or sink and air as a heat
transferring medium. In a typical EAHE system, outdoor air is passed
through the buried pipes and it exchanges heat to/from subsoil. In
EAHE system, ambient air is made to flow through buried pipes em-
ploying a blower. During its course of flow through these pipes, air
exchanges heat with the surrounding soil and get heated up or cooled
down depending on ambient conditions. The conditioned air, so ob-
tained from EAHE system, can further be used for cooling/heating in
summer/winter season, respectively (Agrawal et al., 2018a; Goswami
and Dhaliwal, 1985; Mihalakakou et al., 1996; Santamouris et al., 1996;
Sodha et al., 1985). The performance of EAHE system is increases with
burial depth of pipe but the initial investment also increases with depth
of pipe. A suitable depth of pipe of horizontal ground heat exchanger is
observed to be 3-4 m below the earth’s surface (Suparwoko, 2018). The
working principle of EAHE system for summer cooling is depicted in
Fig. 2.
35
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
1.2. Comparison between EAHE and GSHP
When fluid passes through underground pipes for heating or
cooling, the system is called ground-coupled heat exchanger (GCHE) or
ground source heat exchanger. On the basis of heat transfer fluid used
these systems may be classified into two categories (i) earth air heat
exchanger (EAHE) and (ii) ground source heat pump (GSHP).
The fundamental difference between these GCHE systems is that the
EAHE system uses air while GSHP uses liquid (water/anti-freezing li-
quid/refrigerants) as a heat transfer fluid (Svec et al., 1983). Usually,
the EAHE pipes are installed horizontally at 2-5 m depth, whereas GSHP
pipes are installed vertically in range of 20-200 m (Ascione et al., 2011;
Bessa et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2010). However, shallow depth GSHP
systems are also available, which use horizontal pipe layout at a depth
of 2-5 m from the ground surface. Similarly, vertical pipe layout can
also be used for EAHE system at a depth of more than 4 m (Adamovsky
et al., 2015; Go et al., 2016; Sanaye and Niroomand, 2010). Moreover,
EAHE systems that are used for cooling/heating application in summer/
winter have been rendered unsuitable during the monsoon season and
in humid climatic condition in contrast to GSHP which though com-
monly used for heating application in cold countries, may be employed
throughout the year spanning almost all the weather conditions (Bansal
et al., 2012; Capozza et al., 2015; Thanu et al., 2001). Although, the
installation and running cost of EAHE system is less than that of GSHP
system, yet the EAHE system has not been accepted widely owing to the
efficiency of EAHE lower than that of GSHP.
K.K. Agrawal, et al. Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

Fig. 2. Working principle of EAHE system for summer cooling.

2. Methodology
This review article encompasses the literature related to different
applications of EAHE system, its integration with other equivalent
systems, the challenges to the wide application of EAHE system, its
remedial measures, recent advancements/ developments in EAHE
technology to improve its overall performance & applicability, and the
identification of potential gey area in this domain. However, the effect
of thermal and flow parameters of air, thermo-physical parameters of
soil, pipe layouts, the positioning of pipe, geometrical and material
properties of pipe, ambient conditions, ground surface, different modes
of operation have not been taken into account, owing to the availability
of few relevant review articles already.
The literature database related to the EAHE from 1981 upto the
present times have been collected from different sources such as
Scopus, Web of Science, Taylor & Francis, Springer etc. Various peer-
reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, thesis and books
were searched by using keywords like earth-air heat exchanger, un-
derground air tunnels, earth tube air heat exchanger, buried pipe
system, underground air pipe systems, ground-air-heat exchanger, earth
air pipe heat exchanger, earth tube ventilation, earth air tunnel, ground
heat exchanger, Canadian well etc.
Based on the selected literature on EAHE system, the following
questions have been addressed to in the present review article:
technology has been discussed, and in the last section (i.e. in section 6)
the conclusion of this study is kept.
3. Applications of EAHE system
EAHE is a passive system which not only consumes a low quantity of
energy but also reduces the CO 2 emissions. Therefore, the EAHE sys-
tems have been successfully used for cooling, heating and ventilation
purposes in various buildings (e.g. residential, commercial), agri-
cultural greenhouses and animal houses under different climatic con-
ditions. EAHE systems are also used in hybrid/combined mode with the
conventional/ non-conventional HVAC systems to reduce the overall
electricity consumption for heating, cooling and ventilation. After its
successful application for heating/ cooling in buildings and green-
houses, nowadays, EAHE systems are also being employed for industrial
applications. The different applications of EAHE system are discussed
below.
3.1. Cooling and heating of the building
In the pursuit of energy efficiency as well as alleviation of en-
vironmental concerns, the EAHE system has been applied across the
globe, for the purpose of heating/cooling of buildings.
An earth-air-tunnel (EAT) system was used for ventilation in the

• How is the EAHE system different from the GSHP system? living quarters (south block) of RETREAT campus Gurgaon, India

• Why the acceptance of EAHE is fairly low? What are the impedi- (Majumdar, 2001). Four tunnels of 70 m length and 0.7 m diameter
each were buried at 4 m depth to handle the air rate of 169.9 m3/min
ments to wide application of EAHE system and what are its remedial
with the help of 4 blowers (each of 2 HP capacity). A solar chimney was
measures?
also attached to the rooms for facilitating an improved air flow as re-
• What are the different applications of EAHE system?
• What are the different systems which can be integrated with an
presented in Fig. 3. In the summer season, the temperature of outside
air was reduced from 42-45 °C to 28-30 °C, whereas in the monsoon
EAHE system?
• How can the applicability of EAHE be enhanced in the commercial
season, the excess humidity in air resulted the drop in efficiency which
was recovered by the incorporation of additional dehumidifier and
and industrial sector?
• What are the recent advancements/ developments in EAHE tech-
chillers.
An EAT system was installed at NIIT University, Neemrana (India)
nology to improve its overall performance and applicability?
• What are the major research gaps that need to be addressed?
for ventilation of a hostel and academic block. Total fourteen earth air

• What are the recommendations for further research?

tunnels were employed to maintain the building’s inside temperature
around 28 °C. Additionally, an air handling unit was also used for re-
cooling and dehumidifying the air in each tunnel thus slashing the
This review article has been divided into the following six sections;
energy cost about 60-70 % while the capital cost remains the same as
In the first section, the general introduction of EAHE has been given, In
that of air conditioning unit (Kanth and Chakraborty, 2015).
the second section, the methodology employed for the literature review
REHAU-Eco air (REHAU 2008, 2010,2011) applied the EAHE
has been described, in the third section, various applications of the
system for large-scale buildings in different European countries. A
EAHE system have been discussed, while in the fourth section, the in-
ground-air heat exchange (GAHE) system was used for the heating and
tegration of the EAHE system with other techniques has been included,
cooling requirements of the 3,250 m2 building of TESCO-supermarket
whereas, in the fifth section, the recent development of EAHE
in Poland by REHAU. Heat transfer pipes of 0.2 m diameter with header

36
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of EAHE applications for ventilations of living quarters (Majumdar, 2001).
pipes of 0.5 m diameter were buried underneath the building. The total
length of heat transfer pipes and header pipes was 700 m and 50 m
respectively with an air flow rate of 2700 m3/hour. In the winter
season, this system increased the air temperature by 15 °C (from -2 °C to
13 °C) and provided an annual heating output of 20,500 kW h, fulfilling
nearly half of the annual heating load requirement and providing an
annual savings of € 2,000. Moreover, the system produced an annual
cooling output of 10,700 kW h which added € 1,000 to the savings
compared to the conventional air-conditioning unit (REHAU, 2010).
Ascione et al. (2011) used an EAHE system in the Italian climate for
cooling/heating of an office building for both summer/winter seasons
and concluded that EAHE is a feasible and economic system for heating
as well as cooling. Moreover, Yoon et al. (2009), and Darkwa et al.
(2011) incorporated the EAHE system under Japanese and Chinese
climatic conditions respectively. Ghaith and Razzaq (2018) performed a
case study for a four-storey building of total floor area 400 m2 in Dubai
and found that the 14 earth tubes each of 60 m length and 25 mm
diameter provided an annual energy savings of 11000 kW h and also
reduced 16.5 tons of carbon emissions per year with a payback period
of 3.4 years approximately. Some other studies are also represented in
Table 1.
3.2. Cooling and heating of the greenhouse
Greenhouse is a technique of providing a controlled environment to
the plants by covering the land with a transparent cover. However, the
high solar intensity increases the inside temperature of the air not only
during summer and but also the clear days of winter. Thus, the inner
temperature of the greenhouse needs to be maintained as per the re-
quirement. To control the interior environment of a greenhouse space,
EAHE system and evaporative cooling system can be used, however, the
evaporative cooling system faces challenges in the instances of the
scarcity of water. Moreover, EAHE can be used effectively to provide a
controlled environment for plants (Levit et al., 1989; Santamouris et al.,
1995). Therefore, the EAHE system becomes a good option for con-
trolling the interior environment of a greenhouse (Santamouris et al.,
1994; Santamouris and Kolokotsa, 2013; Shukla et al., 2006; Tiwari
et al., 2006).
Sharan et al. (2004) used an earth tube heat exchanger (ETHE)
system for a greenhouse in a closed-loop mode at Kutch (India). The
ETHE pipe system was installed underneath the greenhouse of size
20 m × 6 m × 3.5 m. Two layers of four mild steel pipes (each pipe of
0.20 m diameter and 23 m length) were placed at a depth of 2 m and
3 m with a common header as portrayed in Fig. 4. A 4.2 kW blower was
used to deliver the air at a rate of 194 m3/min for achieving 20 air
changes per hour (ACH) in the greenhouse, and it was noted that the air
temperature of greenhouse decreased by 7 °C. Thus, the crop yielding
37
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
increased by 2.7 times with 34 % less consumption of irrigation water
(Sharan 2004).
Nayak and Tiwari (2009) applied an EAHE and photovoltaic/
Thermal (PV/T) system to a greenhouse in Delhi, India under three
operating conditions (viz., case I- greenhouse system operated ex-
clusively with PV/T for 24 h, case II- with EAHE for 24 h, case-III-with
PV/T for 12 h during daytime and with EAHE for 12 h in the night) for
the winter season. Results revealed that the relative fluctuations of air
temperature in greenhouse decreased and the air temperature inside the
greenhouse was also 7-8 °C greater than the ambient air temperature
with the use of PV/T air collector during daytime and EAHE in the
nighttime. Few studies related to application of EAHE system for green
house are also listed in Table 1.
3.3. Cooling and heating of livestock
Earth tunnel heat exchanger (ETHE) was also used for heating/
cooling of the air in the dwelling of tigers at Kamala Nehru Zoological
Garden at Ahmedabad, India (Sharan, 2004). An ETHE system with two
MS pipes (each of 0.2 m diameter and 27 m length) was installed at 2 m
depth in the moat as shown in Fig. 5. A blower of 1.2 kW capacity was
used to control the air flow rate at 44.4 m3/min and found that the air
temperature was dropped by 8 °C in the summer and raised by 10 °C in
the winter season.
Deglin et al. (1999) used sub-soil heat exchanger to improve the
ambient conditions in piggeries as shown in Fig. 6. Whereas, Wang
et al. (2018) proposed a mathematical model to design an EAHE system
for the cooling of livestock house.
3.4. Cooling of solar PV panels
The performance of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels critically de-
pends upon the temperature of the panels. When the temperature of
panels increases, performance of PV panels decreases, therefore it is
necessitating to maintain the temperature of panels to requisite low for
the conversion of solar radiation into electrical energy with high effi-
ciency.
Elminshawy et al. (2019) used EAHE system for cooling of solar PV
panels in Egypt. In this study, the ambient hot air (in summer season)
gets cooled by passing through EAHE pipe and then this cooled air was
passed over back panel surface as shown in Fig. 7. The study revealed
that by passing the EAHE cooled air to solar PV, the temperature of the
solar PV module was decreased from average 55 °C to 42 °C and the
electrical conversion efficiency and output power of the PV module
incresed by 22.98% and 18.90% respectively.
 Table 1
Various applications of EAHE systems.
Applications Types of study/ Specification of the EAHE system Specifications of building Findings References
Location or Plant
No. of Diameter or cross- Length of Depth of pipes
K.K. Agrawal, et al.

pipes sectional area of pipes

pipe

Heating / cooling of an institute Experimental/Japan 9 0.5 m 40 m Two-layered: Four stories/ building with Provided tempered air at the flow rate of 16800 m3/ (Yoon et al., 2009)
building 2.5 m and 4 m total floor area of 4240 m2 hour, and reduced building load by 28.8 %
Heating / cooling of a college Experimental/ 30 0.25 m 42 m 1.5 m - Supplied fresh air at the rate of 16000 m³/hour, and (REHAU, 2011).
building Scotland raised the air-temperature by 9 °C in winter,
whereas reduced it by 14 °C in summer
Heating / cooling of Adobe house Experimental/India 1 0.06 m 78 m 1.5 m Adobe house of floor area Room was cooled by 3 °C in the summer season, and (Shukla et al., 2008)
53 m2 heated by 6.5 °C. in the winter season
Heating / cooling of Vaulted roof Thermal Model 1 0.06 m 78 m 1.5 m Vaulted roof house with Maintained the room temperature 5-15 °C higher in (Chel and Tiwari, 2009)
adobe house / India floor area of 94 m2 winter and lower in summer than the ambient air
temperature
Heating / cooling of School Experimental/ 16 0.25 m 30 m 1.5 m - Provided 3457 m3/hour of pre-tempered air (REHAU, 2009)
building Cornwall
2 2
Heating / cooling of hospital Experimental/ India 1 0.528 m 80 m 4m A room of 16 m floor area Provide cooling of 512 kWh and heating of (Bansal and Sodha, 1986;
complex 269 kW h. Sodha et al., 1985)
Heating / cooling of a Experimental/ 20 0.2 m 35 m 1.5 m TESCO Supermarket with Provided annual heating of 20,500 kW h and annual (REHAU, 2010)
Supermarket Poland floor area of 3250 m2 cooling of 10,700 kW h with an air flow rate of
2,700 m3 / hour
2
Cooling of Dilwara Bagh house Experimental/ India 2 0.48 m 60 m 4m Floor area of 120 m2 Provided tempered air at 5.76 m3/s, to maintain (Nayak and Prajapati, 2006).
comfort condition.
Cooling of a nursing home Experimental/ 11 0.2 m - 2m Dining room of floor area Provided air at 2 m3/sec with cooling capacity of (Santamouris, 2006)
France 380 m2 14 kW in the month of July and August

38
Cooling of an education building Theoretical / India 1 0.1 m 80 m 2.5 m Building of volume 63 m3 Saved 90% of electricity than conventional A.C. and (Ralegaonkar et al., 2014)
100 % of water as compared to the EC system
Cooling of a farmhouse Experimental/ India 2 0.48 m2 76.5 m 4m Floor area of 206 m2 Maintained average temperature of farmhouse as (Thanu et al., 2001)
31 °C along with 52 % RH in the summer season
Ventilation of low-energy office Numerical / Belgium 2 0.8 m 40 m 3m Floor area of 497 m2 Provided excellent comfort condition in winter as (Breesch et al., 2005)
building well as in summer.
Ventilation of living quarters Experimental/ India 4 0.7 m 70 m - - Provided tempered air at 169.9 m3/min and air (Majumdar, 2001)
temperature reduced by 15 °C in summer.
Ventilation of a research Experimental/ China 6 0.4 m 50 m 3m - Reduced peak cooling and heating load by 86 % and (Darkwa et al., 2011)
laboratory in a humid 62 % respectively
subtropical climate
Ventilation of a hostel and Experimental/ India 14 1.2 m 120 m 5m - Provided tempered air at 509.7 m3/min and reduced (Kanth and Chakraborty,
academic block energy consumption by 60-70 % 2015)
Ventilation of an assembly hall in Experimental/ 20 0.2 m 18 m Two-layer: Assembly hall with floor Provided heated air (temperature rise of 9 °C) in (REHAU, 2008).
the school London 1.5 m and 1.8 area of 450 m² winter and cooled air (temperature drop of 14 °C) in
m summer.
Heating of a greenhouse Experimental/ 20 0.2 m 15 m 2m Greenhouse of floor area Maintained greenhouse mean temperature at 8.1 °C (Mavroyanopoulos and
Greece 150 m2 while outside mean ambient temperature at -0.8 °C. Kyritsis, 1986)
Heating of a greenhouse Mathematical/ India 1 0.06 m 39 m 1m Greenhouse of floor area Increased air temperature of the greenhouse by 7- (Nayak and Tiwari, 2009)
24 m2 8 °C in winter nights
Cooling of a greenhouse Experimental/ 1 0.08 m 38.5 m 1m Greenhouse of floor area Improved quality of plants in greenhouse (Mongkon et al., 2014, 2013)
Thailand 15 m2
Cooling of a greenhouse Experimental/ India 8 0.2 m 23 m Two-layer: 2 m Greenhouse of floor area Provided air for 20 ACH in the greenhouse, and crop (Sharan, 2004; Sharan et al.,
and 3 m 120 m2 yielding increased by 2.7 times 2004)
Cooling of a greenhouse Experimental/ 26 0.1 m 12 m Two-layer: Greenhouse of floor area Delivered air at 0.91 m3/s for cooling of greenhouse (Bernier et al., 1991)
Canada 0.45 m and 80 m2
0.75 m
Cooling of a greenhouse Experimental/ 1 0.56 m 47 m - Greenhouse of floor area Provided sufficient cooled air to maintain inside (Yildiz et al., 2011)
Turkey 48.5 m2 environment of greenhouse.
(continued on next page)
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
K.K. Agrawal, et al. Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

(Elminshawy et al., 2019)

(Barakat et al., 2016)

(Goswami, 2011)
(Sharan, 2004).
References

Performance of power plant can be increased by 3 %

revenue can increased by 1.655*106 $ with a PBP of

PV panel temperature reduced from 55 °C to 42 °C
Delivered air at 44.4 m3/min with 8 °C heating in

and enhanced electrical conversion efficiency (by

increased by 9 % and 4.8 % respectively. Annual

Power-output and thermal efficiency of GPP can
22.98 %) and output power (by 18.90 %).

at the peak environment temperature

winter and 10 °C cooling in summer.

Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of EAHE application for the greenhouse (Sharan,

2004) (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article).

3.5. Industrial applications

Some studies have also been conducted to examine the feasibility of

1.2 years
Findings

EAHE system in industrial substantiating and found that EAHE is a good

option for industrial heating and cooling application. Goswami (2011)
developed a model to evaluate the performance of a dry-cooled solar
PV module of effective area

thermal power plant (STPP) using EAHE cooled air for condenser
Specifications of building

Gas power plant of 125-

cooling of the power plant to increase the cycle efficiency. The study
revealed that the performance of dry-cooled solar thermal power plant
could be improved by 3% at peak dry bulb temperature using the un-
STTP of 80 MW

derground-cooling technique. It was also observed that if the incoming

air temperature is lower, the air-cooled-condenser (ACC) would be
or Plant

1.65 m2

more effective and smaller in size. Moreover, it was calculated that

MW

about 100 EAHE channels (each of 400 m length, 4.6 m diameter with
-

2 m pitch) would be required for cooling of 80 MW STPP and concluded

Depth of pipes

that EAHE could be applied for cooling at large scale.

Vidhi et al. (2014; 2014b) employed an EAHE system for condenser
cooling of a super-critical Rankine cycle (SCR) based power generation
2m

1m

5m

unit as shown in Fig. 8. It was noticed that by using EAHE for condenser
-

cooling, the efficiency of the SCR increased by 1% with reduction in its

Length of

daily fluctuations. However, the effective useful time in a year is found

400 m
1.2 m
pipes

27 m

85 m

to be shorter for the cooling of power plant condenser by using EAHE

Specification of the EAHE system

system. In another study, Vidhi et al. (Vidhi et al., 2014a) observed that
Diameter or cross-

due to continuous use of EAHE system, the outlet air temperature

sectional area of

started increasing, and therefore ACC required a higher mass flow rate
of air for sufficient cooling which resulted in higher fan power and less
0.019 m

cycle efficiency.
0.35 m
0.2 m

4.6 m
pipe

Barakat et al. (2016) employed EAHE system in gas power plant (as
depicted in Fig. 9), to improve performance of the gas turbine power
plant. A transient, one-dimensional model was developed to predict the
No. of
pipes

100

853

thermal performance of EAHE and found that the EAHE cooling system
12
2

decreases the air temperature and increases air density at the inlet of
Experimental / India

Experimental/ Egypt

Mathematical/ USA

compressor thus resulted reduction in the compressor input work and

Numerical / Egypt

improvement in the turbine power output. In a case study of 125 MW

Types of study/

gas power plant, a total of 853 pipes of 85 m length and 0.35 m dia-
meter were required while the pipe was buried at depth of 5 m with air
Location

flow velocity maintained at 4.5 m/s. The thermal efficiency and power
output of gas power plant using EAHE system increased by 4.8%and 9%
respectively along with the increase of annual revenue amounting to
Heating/cooling of a tigers house

Cooling of air for a compressor of

1.655*106 $ with payback period of 1.2 years.

cooling of Condense of STPP
Cooling of solar PV panels

Zeng et al. (2019) used an EAHE system for reducing the tempera-
ture of an underground diesel generator room to prevent the infrared
Table 1 (continued)

exposure of the generator room for military camouflage. It was ob-

served that the maximum infrared camouflage protection rate was
Applications

86.96% for the intermittent operation of EAHE.

GPP

Across the globe, the EAHE system has been applied successfully to
pre-heat and pre-cool the air for various applications. From the pre-
vious studies, it is established that EAHE system can reduce building

39
K.K. Agrawal, et al. Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

Fig. 5. Schematic diagram of EAHE system application for the dwelling of tigers (Sharan, 2004).

heating and cooling load. However, it needs to integrate with some
other auxiliary systems like heat recovery unit, air handling unit to
achieve sufficient heating/cooling effect and providing adequate
thermal comfort in buildings. EAHE system can also provide a suitable
environment in the greenhouse to improve quality and yielding of
plants. Additionally, EAHE system has the potential to provide pre-
cooled air at a large scale for industrial application. However, due to
economic constraint, the EAHE system is not being used widely.
4. Integration of EAHE system: hybrid-EAHE system
Various research articles, corroborate the fact that the effectiveness
and utility of EAHE system can be increased by coupling it with some
other passive or active system. The passive system consumes a little
amount of electrical energy whereas, the active system consumes a
enormous electrical power. Therefore, to reduce the thermal load and
total power consumption of active systems (such as air conditioning
systems), EAHE system is coupled with different active systems
(Benhamza et al., 2017; Misra et al., 2013, 2012; Yu et al., 2014).
However, EAHE is coupled passive systems (e.g., solar chimneys and
wind towers etc.) to provide tempered air and ventilation with minimal
energy consumption. The different hybrid EAHE systems are presented
in Table 2 and explained in the following paragraphs.
Baglivo et al. (2018; 2017) proposed a concept of coupling of the
air-cooled heat pump (ACHP) with a horizontal air-ground heat ex-
changer (HAGHE) system for Mediterranean Climate. Pre-cooled air
from EAHE system was supplied to the heat pump condenser in summer
while pre-heated air from EAHE was supplied to the evaporator in
winter. It was found that about 1115 kW h of energy can be saved
annually by using HAGHE system with ACHP as compared to stand
alone ACHP system. In similar way, Do et al. (2015) coupled air-source
heat pump (ASHP) with EAHE system (as shown in Fig. 10) to measure
the energy saving potential of EAHE system for the cooling of a building
under hot and humid climatic condition of Texas. It was noticed that
the annual cooling energy savings were up to 13.8% with EAHE cou-
pled ASHP system.
Li et al. (2018) studied the feasibility of EAHE with air handling unit
(AHU) for preheating of fresh air and noticed that in severe cold re-
gions, this hybrid system increased air temperature by 26.1 °C (14 °C by
EAHE system and remaining 12.1 °C by AHU). Therefore, this hybrid
system provided sufficient heating to air without any auxiliary heating
system.
Misra et al. (2013, 2012) coupled EAHE system with a conventional
air conditioning system to enhance the performance of the active
cooling system and found that when the cooled air from EAHE system
was supplied to the condenser of 1.5 TR window AC (as shown in
Fig. 11), the energy consumption reduced in the range of 10.8-17.9%.
For a similar system, Soni et al. (2016) found the energy saving of
10.9% and discounted payback period (DPBP) of three years for the
hybrid system. In another study, Benhamza et al. (2017) noted that the
combined operation of EAHE with AC, increased the COP and EER of
conventional AC system by 20% and 19%, respectively.
Later, Ghaith and Alsouda (2017) coupled an EAHE system with the
vapour compression cooling (VCC) system to enhance the performance
of VCC system and found that the integration of EAHE system, im-
proved the COP of VCC up to 50%.
Zapałowicz and Opiela (2018) proposed a hybrid air-conditioning
system for a building which consists of a conventional air conditioner,

Fig. 6. Schematic diagram of EAHE system application for cooling/heating of Piggery house (Deglin et al., 1999).

40
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram of EAHE application for cooling of solar PV panel (Elminshawy et al., 2019).
ground-air heat exchanger (GAHE), and solar PV unit as shown in
Fig. 12. The ambient air was first cooled through the GAHE system,
some part of this cooled air flows through a channel (formed by rear-
side of PV modules and the wall of the building) to reduce the tem-
perature of PV modules, which improves its efficiency. At the same
time, building wall (south facing) also gets cooled and reduced the heat
gain into the building. The remaining cooled air was directed to the air
conditioner for lowering the air conditioning load.
Rodrigues and Gillott (2015) coupled EAHE with phase change
material (PCM) as shown in Fig. 13 and observed that the combined
effect of PCM and EAHE improved cooling effect up to 47% than the
conventional AC system.
Jakhar et al. (2018) connected water-cooled heat exchanger
(WCHE) with EAHE in series for cooling of air in the summer season
and found that the average air temperature drop was 11.0 °C and
16.27 °C for the simple and hybrid EAHE system.
Bansal and Mathur (2009) coupled EAHE system with an evapora-
tive cooler (EC) for the cooling of air and observed that the required
length of EAHE pipe could be reduced up to 93.5% when compared to a
stand-alone EAHE system. In another study, Bansal et al. (2012) found
that the cooling effect of EC coupled EAHE system was 69% higher than
Fig. 8. Schematic diagram of EAHE applications in thermal power plant (Rachana Vidhi et al., 2014a).
41
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
that of a simple EAHE system.
Gokarakonda and Kokogiannakis (2014) proposed a combination of
earth-tube-ventilation (ETV) and desiccant-wheel (DW) along with a
passive-down-draught-evaporative-cooling (PDEC) tower (as illustrated
in Fig. 14) for effective use of evaporative cooling in hot-humid cli-
mates. It was observed that this combined system reduced the summer
peak indoor temperature by 8 °C while sustaining the indoor relative
humidity below 75%.
Kaushal et al. (2015) attached a single-pass solar air heater (SAH) to
an EAHE system (Fig. 15) for the heating of air during day-hours in the
winter season and found that the air temperature rise in the simple and
hybrid EAHE system were 14.4 K and 49.83 K respectively. Therefore,
hybrid EAHE-SAH system enhanced the performance of EAHE system
by almost three times than the simple EAHE system with the same
blower power.
Similarly Jakhar et al. (2015) coupled EAHE system with a solar air
heating duct (as shown in Fig. 16), to improve the heating capacity of
EAHE system during the day-hours of winter season. It was observed
that the heating capacity and COP of EAHE-SAHD coupled system in-
creased up to 1280.7 kW h, and 4.57 respectively, than the stand-alone
EAHE system.
K.K. Agrawal, et al. Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of EAHE applications in gas power plant (Barakat et al., 2016).

Maerefat and Haghighi (2010) investigated the combined effect of
the solar chimney (SC) and EAHE system on ventilation and cooling of a
solar house (Fig. 17) and noticed that SC could provide sufficient force
to EAHE system during the daytime, without any electricity consump-
tion. In another study, Haghighi and Maerefat (2014) observed that the
SC coupled EAHE could deliver good indoor thermal condition even in
lower ambient air temperature of 0 °C and solar intensity of 250 W /m2.
It was also established that the required number of SCs and the un-
derground air channels may approximately be calculated as:
Room volume
Number of solar chimneys=
50
Room volume ⎞
Number of underground air channels= 2 × ⎛ +1
⎝ 50 ⎠ emission and noise levels.
In an optimisation study of SC-EAHE system, Serageldin et al.
(2018) observed that the diameter of EAHE pipe is the most sensitive
parameter, among EAHE inlet height, pipe diameter, chimney height,
the solar chimney gap, width, and inclination angle. Moreover, Poshtiri
et al. (2011) also performed optimization study and found that SC air
gap up to 0.2 m and EAHE pipe diameter of 0.5 m gave Optimum results
for the thermal comfort in buildings.
Whereas, Li et al. (2014) used a solar collector in addition to the SC-
EAHE coupled system to operate the system in a natural passive mode
as presented in Fig. 18. This hybrid system was able to maintain indoor
air temperature, and humidity ratio in the range of 21.3-25.1 °C and 50-
78 % respectively and SC drove up to 1000 m3/h of outdoor air into
confined space. Likewise, Tavakolinia (2011) coupled a wind-catcher
with SC-EAHE system for natural ventilation and cooling of the single-
storey building in the Los Angeles and found that the addition of wind-
catcher to SC-EAHE system cut-down the overall energy consumption,
Benhammou et al. (2015) presented a new hybrid passive system for
space cooling, in which EAHE was integrated with wind tower (WT) as
shown in Fig. 19, and found that the dimensions of EAHE system

Table 2
Different hybrid EAHE systems.
S. No. Hybrid System Findings References

1. EAHE + ASHP Total power consumption is reduced by supplying treated air of EAHE system to (Baglivo et al., 2018; Baglivo and Congedo, 2017;
the condenser in summer, and to the evaporator of a heat pump in the winter Do et al., 2015)
season.
2. EAHE + AHU AHU system increases the heating potential of EAHE by providing reheating of air (Darkwa et al., 2011; Li et al., 2018)
at the outlet of EAHE.
3. EAHE + AC EAHE system with AC can reduce total power consumption by either or both of the (Benhamza et al., 2017; Ghaith and Alsouda, 2017;
following methods (a) supplying EAHE cooled air in the room to reduce total Misra et al., 2013, 2012; Soni et al., 2016)
cooling load AC and (b) supplying EAHE cooled air on condenser of AC to reduce
compressor work.
4. EAHE + SPV + AC In this hybrid mode, EAHE increased the efficiency of PV modulus by cooling of (Zapałowicz and Opiela, 2018)
panels and reduced the air conditioning load by providing EAHE cooled air into
the room.
5. EAHE + PCM The combined effect of PCM and EAHE improved cooling up to 47 % than the (Rodrigues and Gillott, 2015)
conventional AC system
6. EAHE + WCHE Water cooled heat exchanger connected in series with EAHE, provide additional (Jakhar et al., 2018)
cooling effect to air.
7. EAHE + EC The cooling effect increased up to 69 % in the hot and dry climate than that in (Bansal et al., 2012)
simple EAHE system
8. EAHE + DW + PDEC To make EAHE applicable in humid climate, DW and PDEC are attached with (Gokarakonda and Kokogiannakis, 2014)
EAHE.
9. EAHE + SAH Improved the heating capacity of EAHE system up to three times during the (Jakhar et al., 2015; Kaushal et al., 2015)
daytime of winter season with the same blower power consumption.
10 EAHE + SC SC provides sufficient driving force to air in EAHE even at a low ambient (Haghighi and Maerefat, 2014; Maerefat and
temperature and SRI. Therefore, it reduces electricity consumption which Haghighi, 2010; Poshtiri et al., 2011)
enhances the overall performance.
11 EAHE + Solar Collector + SC Additional coupling of solar collector with EAHE and SC increases the air flow rate (Li et al., 2014; Yu et al., 2014)
and helps to operate EAHE system in natural passive mode.
12 EAHE + WT + SC This hybrid system provides natural ventilation and improves the cooling potential (Tavakolinia, 2011)
of EAHE system.
13 EAHE + WT WT improves the cooling potential of EAHE system. (Benhammou et al., 2015)
14 EAHE + BTM The combined system increases the time lag of indoor air temperature. (Yang and Zhang, 2014)

42
K.K. Agrawal, et al. Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

Fig. 10. Schematic diagram of EAHE integrated with ASHP unit (Do et al., 2015).

(height, cross-section) have more influence on the performance of hy- blower while the coupling of an evaporative cooler with EAHE system
brid WT-EAHE system as compared to the dimensions of wind tower increases the cooling effect along with the decrease in the length of the
(height and cross-sectional area). Moreover, the highest daily cooling buried pipe. Conventional air conditioning system consumes an en-
potential obtained was 30.7 kW h, for a wind tower of 5.1 m height & ormous amount of useful energy which can be reduced substantially by
0.57 m2 cross-section area, when it was coupled with an EAHE of 70 m pre-cooling and pre-heating of air with EAHE system. Solar air heater
pipe length and 0.3 m diameter. coupled EAHE system enhances the heating capacity of EAHE system
Yang and Zhang (2014) coupled EAHE system with building thermal during the day-hours of the winter season. Lower payback period and
mass (BTM) as depicted in Fig. 20 and assessed combined effects of longer life of system render the commercial viability of hybrid EAHE
EAHE and BTM on the indoor thermal comfort. It was observed that this system, thus, endorsing the use of coupled EAHE systems.
hybrid system produced the annual time lag of indoor air temperature
as large as 10 days and hence, EAHE-BTM system could provide the
5. Recent research trends in EAHE system
requisite indoor thermal comfort in winter as well as in summer.
In another study, Yang et al. (2019) implemented an inverse ap-
In this section, recent developments in EAHE system during the last
proach in which internal thermal mass is incorporated with EAHE. The
two years are considered. This section describe the recent advance-
CFD simulation shown that the prediction of EAHE parameters based on
ments in EAHE system pertaining to the various aspects of design
required outlet air temperature is more effective than the conventional
processes and the modelling/simulation of the system as well as impact
approach.
of soil properties on its thermal performance. In addition to the above,
From the previous studies, it is observed that many a times EAHE
many researchers have developed laboratory scale experimental setup
system as a stand-alone has proved to be inefficacious. Hence, it is re-
to evaluate the effect of various parameters on the performance of
commended that EAHE system can be coupled with other active/pas-
EAHE system. The salient features of the recent research carried out by
sive systems to maintain the requisite comfort conditions during winter
various researchers are presented in the following paragraphs.
as well as in summer. The hybrid system increases the utility of EAHE
Rouag et al. (2018) developed a new transient semi-analytical
system and also reduces the overall power consumption. Solar chimney
model for determining temperature distribution in the soil around the
coupled with EAHE system reduces the power consumption of the
pipe of the EAHE system and found that the soil radius reached up to

Fig. 11. Schematic diagram of EAHE system coupling with AC unit (Benhamza et al., 2017).

43
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
Fig. 12. Schematic diagram of EAHE integrated with SPV and AC unit (Zapałowicz and Opiela, 2018).
Fig. 13. EAHE connected to PCM system (Rodrigues and Gillott, 2015).
Fig. 14. Schematic diagram of EAT connected with DW and PDEC
(Gokarakonda and Kokogiannakis, 2014).
0.55 m from the pipe surface for 6 hours of continuous operation.
Moreover, it was found that soil radius (thickness) is a function of pipe
diameter, the duration of operation, air temperature and soil thermal
diffusivity.
Mehdid et al. (2018) developed a new Generalized RBM model, a
44
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
Fig. 15. Integration of EAHE with SAH (Kaushal et al., 2015).
semi-analytical model to calculate the transient thermal performance of
EAHE system for cooling operation. The pipe and soil volume are di-
vided into many layers and based on the temperature of the first soil
layer, the temperature of subsequent layers of soil surrounding the air
pipe is calculated.
Estrada et al. (2018) developed a three-dimensional model and as-
sessed the effect of latent heat exchanges on EAHE design in the climate
of Brazil and south of France. The study revealed that the energetic
potential of an EAHE system depends on sensible heat exchanges as
well as latent heat exchanges.
Liu et al. (2018a, b) studied combined heat and moisture transfer in
the soil at the vicinity of EAHE system by using finite volume method
and noticed that the peak position of moisture advances away from the
pipe surface over time. Moreover, higher thermal performance of EAHE
system was noticed while considering heat and moisture transfer si-
multaneously when compared with case of considering heat transfer
model only.
Chiesa (2017) introduced a new simplified method to calculate the
potential of EAHE system based on the composition of local soil and
climate data. Similarly, Yusof et al. (2018a) presented a mathematical
model for the calculation of thermal characteristics of EAHE system
under tropical climatic conditions and found that EAHE system evinces
good potential to be implemented in tropical climatic conditions.
Nazer-Nejad et al. (2018) numerically evaluated the feasibility of
EAHE system for air-conditioning in Tehran’s environment and ob-
served that in 24 hours of operation, EAHE provides a comfortable
condition except for a short period in the mid of the day. However, this
K.K. Agrawal, et al. Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50

Fig. 16. Integration of EAHE with SAHD (Jakhar et al., 2015).

Fig. 17. Schematic diagram of EAHE coupled with solar chimney (Maerefat and Haghighi, 2010).

Fig. 19. Schematic diagram of wind tower coupled with EAHE system
Fig. 18. Schematic diagram of EAHE coupled with SC and solar collector (Li
(Benhammou et al., 2015).
et al., 2014).

operation.
system proved suitable only for the short period of operation as the soil
Numerous articles have revealed that the thermal performance of
in the vicinity of the underground pipe becomes saturated and the
EAHE system primarily depends on the properties of soil that act as
performance of EAHE system decreases in case of long continuous
source as well as sink of heat. Therefore, the researchers have focussed

45
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
Fig. 20. Schematic diagram of EAHE integrated with BTM (Yang and Zhang, 2014).
their attention on the soil properties and its impact on EAHE system.
Agrawal et al. (2019, 2018b) developed two similar experimental
setups (one in dry soil and other in wet soil) in semi-arid climate of
Ajmer (India), and compared their performance for summer as well as
winter season. A water trickling system was employed to maintain the
different levels of soil moisture contents in a wet system. It was ob-
served that the pipe length of EAHE system could be reduced drastically
by using wet soil in the vicinity of buried pipe. Similarly, Morshed et al.
(2018) compared performance of two experimental EAHE setups (one
in dry soil and another one in artificially wet soil) in semi-desert climate
of Basra Province (Iraq) and compared their performance. In the wet
system, a drip pipe was placed 0.1 m above the air pipe for wetting the
soil around the air-pipe. The study revealed that that the average COP
of the wet system is higher (6.41) compared to that of dry system
(5.07).
Lin et al. (2018) evaluated the effect of soil moisture on the long-
term energy performance of an EAHE system and estimated the thermal
properties of three different soil layers of the EAHE-site. It was observed
that performance of saturated soil increased up to 40% compared to dry
soil, as shown in Fig. 21.
Hsu et al. (2018) buried four EAHE pipes, each of 40 m length and
0.202 m diameter in water-filled raft foundation for cooling of a
Fig. 21. Cooling capacity of EAHE system with different saturation conditions of soil (Lin et al., 2018).
46
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
building at Yilan, Taiwan. It was observed that the cooling potential of
this integrated system at a depth of 1.3 m was equivalent to soil-based
EAHE system at a depth of 2 m or more. Moreover, the results revealed
that the installation cost of raft-integrated EAHE system is less than that
of conventional EAHE system as separate excavation was dispensed
with, besides air pipes being installed in the building foundation re-
sulting the considerable saving in the expenditure to be incurred in the
procurement of land.
Cuny et al. (2018) analyzed the effect of three different soil coatings
(sand, a mixture of sand- bentonite, and in-situ soil) along the pipe
length on the thermal performance of EAHE system and noticed that the
performance of EAHE is considerably influenced by soil type and soil
moisture contents.
Rodrigues et al. (2018) performed standard penetration test (in-situ)
to obtain the geotechnical profiles of the soil at three different locations
of Brazil and also carried out numerical thermal performance analysis
of EAHE system. The study showed that the thermal potential of EAHE
system is affected by water and clay contents in the soil significantly.
Shojaee and Malek (2017) achieved the improved savings in energy for
EAHE system with silty soil when compared to loamy and clay soil.
Recently, few researchers have developed a laboratory simulator of
EAHE system similar to solar simulator for the performance analysis of
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
Fig. 22. Laboratory Scale experimental setup of EAHE system (Elminshawy et al., 2017).
EAHE system. EAHE laboratory simulator offers the advantage of fa-
cilitating not only the flexibility of varying the input parameter and
simulating the required environmental (controlled environment) in the
laboratory but also consequently reduced dependence on environ-
mental conditions.
Elminshawy et al. (2017) developed a small scale EAHE simulator
setup with an artificially controlled environment to investigate the
impact of three different compaction levels of soil on the performance
of EAHE system. A galvanized cylindrical drum of 0.5 m diameter and
1.5 m length was used as a soil container, concentric to which a copper
pipe having 0.015 m inner diameter was placed as shown in Fig. 22. A
heater was attached with pipe to provide warm air inside the pipe and
an air conditioner unit was used to maintain soil temperature in par-
ticular range by controlling inside temperature of the laboratory. The
study revealed that the effectiveness of the EAHE system improved by
49 % with the increase in the soil compaction level.
Similarly, Zhou et al. (2018) also used a laboratory scale EAHE
setup with PCM filled material as shown in Fig. 23. The test rig consists
of three concentric pipes (two stainless steel pipe and one PVC pipe)
each of 2.5 m length with the outer diameter of 50.8 mm, 101.6 mm and
315 mm for first stainless steel pipe, second stainless steel pipe and PVC
pipe, respectively. The results showed that the cooling capacity of PCM-
filled EAHE system is 20.24% higher compared to that of traditional
EAHE system.
Yusof et al. (2018b) examined the performance of an EAHE system
by using a medium scale laboratory experimental setup. For that, a PVC
pipe of 8.7 m length and 101.8 mm diameter was utilised for the flow of
air through it, with the surrounding soil of about twice of PVC pipe
diameter. This soil cylinder with EAHE pipe was submerged into a
chilled water tank to control soil temperature. The results obtained
from test-runs on medium scale laboratory setup were found in agree-
ment with that of large scale field experimental studies.
Different pipe layout and EAHE designs have been suggested by
various researchers to address the prominent issue concerned to the
requirement of ample land for the installation and commercialization of
EAHE system. Few of the recent studies regarding this, have been ela-
borated in the following section.
Fig. 23. Schematic diagram of a PCM filled EAHE system (Zhou et al., 2018).
47
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
Mathur et al. (2017) proposed a spiral-shaped EAHE system to re-
solve the problem of land limitation for the installation of long straight
EAHE system and compared its performance with the straight EAHE
system. It was seen that the COP of spiral and straight EAHE system
were 6.24 and 5.94 in summer; 2.11 and 1.92 in winter respectively.
Benrachi et al. (2017) also considered spiral type pipe configuration for
GAHE system to reduce the land area requirements. Liu et al. (2018a, b)
established a new EAHE system with vertically buried tubes in Hunan,
China and compared it with the conventional horizontal EAHE system.
It was found that the vertical EAHE system has high geothermal energy
utilization efficiency and ease of condensate water discharge. More-
over, vertical EAHE requires less land area compared to horizontal
EAHE system.
Zukowski and Topolanska (2017) compared the thermal perfor-
mance of tube and plate type EAHE systems and found that the energy
gain by tube type and plate type EAHE system respectively were
13.5 MW h and 16.35 MW h in the winter season, whereas 10.3 MW h
and 20.41 MW h in the summer season.
Based on constructal design strategies, Brum et al. (2018) in-
vestigated geometrical configurations for multi-pipe EAHE system and
observed that the thermal performance of EAHE system can be im-
proved by increasing the number of ducts strategically and reducing
their diameters. Moreover, the ratio between their vertical and hor-
izontal spacing must be reduced to some extent. Ramalho et al. (2018)
purposed new constructal model to maximize the heat transfer between
soil and air in EAHE system and noticed that the ratio of horizontal
spacing to vertical spacing as 1:1 for three ducts arranged triangularly.
Recent findings by the researchers across the globe corroborates the
fact that the laboratory scale models indicate their likelihood to sub-
stitute the massive field experimental-set up owing to their environ-
mental and constructal flexibility. Moreover, the CFD simulation
method manifests an advanced and efficient technique to analyze EAHE
system, thus dispensing with the expensive experimental set-up and
rigorous man-hours.
K.K. Agrawal, et al.
6. Conclusions
EAHE system is an efficient and reliable passive technique to pro-
vide heating and cooling effect for living space, agricultural house and
industrial uses. Though EAHE system offers the advantage of being
beneficial in different climatic conditions for both heating as well as
cooling of air, however it being unsuitable for humid climatic condi-
tions, necessitates the use of an extra dehumidifier to control the hu-
midity. Moreover, when EAHE system cannot provide adequate cooling
during the summer season, an additional cooling device is incorporated
to achieve sufficient cooling. Similarly, in the winter season, the air is
pre-heated with the help of EAHE system and can be heated further by
using an electric heater/gas heater.
EAHE systems have been applied successfully for heating and
cooling of buildings and greenhouses at the various locations all over
the world. Moreover, the literature reviewed, highlights the fact that
the efficiency and utility of EAHE system can be satisfactorily increased
by coupling it with other active/passive systems (e.g. solar chimney,
evaporative cooler, HVAC, wind catcher, solar air heater and building
thermal mass etc.). Likewise, the EAHE system also act as a good option
for industrial applications such as pre-cooling of air for air-cooled
condenser (ACC) and air compressors.
As evident from the literature pertaining to the recent researches,
few domain, viz., design processes, modelling, simulation and effects of
soil properties on EAHE performance by using laboratory scale ex-
perimental setup and CFD method are being economic and less rigorous
instead of the real field setups.
The following salient features have been concluded from the present
study:
1. A standalone EAHE system does not sustain requirements of
thermal loads completely, but it can considerably reduce the thermal
load in winter as well as in summer with lower operating cost.
2. EAHE system coupled with passive as well as active systems has
demonstrated the enhanced utility of EAHE system.
3. Coupling of EAHE with passive systems is not gaining popularity,
because its use being constrained due to dependence on environmental
conditions.
4. EAHE integration with the active system is more popular and
attractive because an EAHE system is subjected to the substantial part
of heating and cooling, the remaining one borne by active system, thus
facilitating the hybrid system a long life and short payback period.
5. Though EAHE provide adequate thermal comfort in winter season
as well as in summer season, in contrast to that in the rainy season (or
in a humid climate), it cannot control air humidity. Therefore, to
overcome this problem, an air humidity controller device or desiccant
system can be connected with EAHE system to achieve thermal comfort
condition year long.
6. Recent studies evinced the dependence of energetic potential of
an EAHE system on the latent heat exchanges, contrary to the studies
conducted earlier which considered only sensible heat transfer in EAHE
system. Thus emphasizing the need of incorporating latent heat transfer
while designing an EAHE system.
7. Very few studies considered moisture transfer in wet soil due to
heat transfer from air to the soil. However, the heat transfer rate in soil
is also governed by the moisture migration. Therefore, the moisture
transfer should also be considered along with heat transfer for de-
signing an EAHE system.
8. The availability of large land area is a prime constraint for the
implementation of EAHE system in urban areas as it requires long pipes
to obtain sufficient heat transfer. To overcome this problem, EAHE
pipes can be buried in the footprint of the building. Moreover, pipes
also can be installed in multilayer or vertically to reduce land area
requirement
9. Due to deterioration in the performance during continuous op-
eration, the intermittent operations are recommended for improved
performance of EAHE system. Moreover, based on their findings, the
48
Geothermics 82 (2019) 34–50
researchers corroborate the fact that EAHE system show better perfor-
mance during day hours in the summer season, while during night
hours in the winter season.
10. The length of EAHE pipes can be reduced with the use of soil
possessing good thermal properties in the vicinity of buried EAHE pipe.
Furthermore, the thermal properties of soil can be enriched by adding
moisture and increasing compaction level (density).
11. The required pipe length of EAHE can also be reduced by ap-
plying a coating of thermally enhanced backfilling material (such as a
mixture of different type of soil, mixture of sand bentonite etc.) at the
vicinity of the pipe.
12. It is suggested to use a laboratory scale simulator of EAHE
system for the research purpose, as real field setup is not only expensive
but entail complications in case of any error/fault as well as during
modification while varying the input parameters. Moreover, the ex-
perimentation in laboratory scale simulator can be performed any time
as it does not depend on ambient environmental conditions.
13 Following deterrent factors to the implementation of the EAHE
system have been identified:
(a) Lack of comprehension at the end of user
(b) Financial Risk
(c) Indifference towards policy formulation
(d) Technological complexity
The comprehensive review of the applications and technology in-
tegration pinpoints that the various possible avenues of future research
encompassing the economic viability, generalized implementation and
feasibility of EAHE system as stand-alone as well as in hybrid mode for
various climatic conditions need to be explored.
Acknowledgements
The corresponding author is grateful to the MHRD, Government of
India, for providing the research fellowship for pursuing Ph.D. at MNIT
Jaipur, India
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