Pilot site

GEOFIT EXTERNAL TRAININGS SOON!

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September & October 2022

The EU-funded project GEOFIT is an integrated industrially driven action aimed to deploy cost-effective enhanced geothermal systems on energy-efficient building retrofitting.

Upon the completion of the pilots, it is time to present and share the results, and bring all the experience accumulated to potential stakeholders.

GEOFIT is organizing three virtual trainings addressed to professionals and researchers in the field of geothermal energy, renewables and construction sector who wish to learn more about Smart Geothermal Systems.

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1st Training: GEOFIT Training on Ground Source Heat Exchangers and Geothermal Heat Pumps

Date: 20th September 2022 | 10 – 12 CEST

Speakers: Henk Witte (Groenholland) and Michael Lauermann (AIT)

What to expect?

This webinar will present the research, development and assessment of various typologies of heat pumps and ground source heat exchangers (GHEX) studied in the EU-funded project GEOFIT which focuses on geothermal retrofitting across a range of building typologies (residential, tertiary, educational).   

Regarding GHEX, different typologies have been studied such as vertical and horizontal boreholes, slinky HEX, and earth baskets. Test campaigns were performed both in the lab and at the pilots and optimal geometries were studied aiding to the development of an engineering tool for optimal sizing of the GHEX which will be presented.

Regarding heat pumps, different typologies of electrical and heat-driven Heat Pumps (HP) have been optimised and implemented to include high temperature HPs with low GWP refrigerants, off-the-shelves HPs integrated in residential retrofitting projects, and hybrid HPs using gas and heat to supply heating and cooling. Results from analysis, prototyping and fielding will be presented.

Registration here

2nd Training: GEOFIT Training on On-The-Ground Experience with Four Pilots

Date: 27th September 2022 | 10 – 12 CEST

Speakers: Antonio Galindo (COMSA), Romain Lhomer (NOBATEK), Claudia Fabiani (UNI PERUGIA), Avril Ní Shearcaigh (CFOAT) and Anna Mundet (Sant Cugat Municipality)

What to expect?

This webinar will present the field implementations of four pilots from the EU-funded project GEOFIT.

  • A residential single-family-house on the Aran Island (Ireland). The building was insulated, provided with an innovative radiant floor heating and with an electric heat pump connected to a vertical borehole.
  • An elementary school in Sant Cugat (Catalunya, Spain). A large vertical boreholes field is supplying heat to an electric heat pump replacing some of the existing gas boilers. The horizontal connection boreholes field – technical room was achieved via horizontal directional drilling. A high temperature radiant ceiling system is providing free cooling in summer exploiting the vertical boreholes.
  • An office building in Bordeaux (France). A vertical borehole coupled to earth baskets are providing heat to a hybrid driven heat pump (gas- and electricity-driven) in an office building. The heat pump also provides cooling in summer.
  • A historic building in Perugia (Italy). The Sant’Apollinare Fortress was already equipped with a radiant floor heating system, which is now being supplied by a gas-driven heat pump. The heat pump also provides cooling in summer. Slinky geothermal heat exchangers have been installed.

The pilots in GEOFIT have resulted in a series of lessons learned and validation of scientific progress. Sharing these experiences is a key objective of the webinar.

Registration here

3rd Training: GEOFIT Training on Radar Technologies for Ground Inspection and Structural Health Monitoring, Thermal Load Estimation of Buildings and Use of Digital Twin Management Software (GeoBIM)

Date: 11th October 2022 | 10 – 12 CEST

Speakers: Guido Manacorda (IDSGEO), Fabio Giannino (IDSGEO), Joan Tarragona (EURECAT), Alessandro Piccinini (NUI Galway), Andrea Frazzica (CNR ITAE), Giuseppe Dino (CNR ITAE), Hugo Viot (NOBATEK), Henrikki Pieskä (KTH), Adriaan Brebels (iLECO) and Mikel Borràs & Juan Ramón (IDP))

What to expect?

This third and final training webinar will present a set of supporting technologies and processes for geothermal retrofitting resultant of work carried out in the EU-funded project GEOFIT. Topics and results to be presented include: 

  • The use of Ground Penetrating Radars for soil inspection and Ground-Based Syntethic Aperture Radar for structural health monitoring / site quality assurance (with respect to risk)
  • Novel approaches and models to simulate the energy load of retrofitted buildings including the validation process
  • An advanced energy management system capable of making decisions based on energy tariffs
  • A newly developed digital twin environment called GEOBIM that including models of ground source heat exchangers

These technologies and their associated services / processes have been validated during the GEOFIT scientific program and pilot activities.

Registration here

Don’t miss the opportuniy to learn about GEOFIT main findings and results, especially, how you can benefit from this technology!

IBPSA UK Conference paper (2020)

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Conference paper presented in IBPSA-England Building Simulation and Optimisation Conference 2020

Available for download in NUIG repository and Zenodo.

Title: A novel ROM methodology to support the estimation of the energy savings under the Measurement and Verification protocol.

Language: English

Authors: Alessandro Piccinini (*1,2,3), Magdalena Hajdukiewicz (*1,2,3), Letizia D’Angelo (*1,2,3), Luis Miguel
Blanes (*1,2,3), Marcus M. Keane (*1,2,3)

*1: School of Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, National University of Ireland
Galway, Ireland
*2: Informatics Research Unit for Sustainable Engineering (IRUSE) Galway, Ireland
*3: Ryan Institute, National University of Ireland Galway, Ireland

Abstract: This paper presents a novel Reduced Order grey box Model (ROM) methodology, based on a Resistor-Capacitor (RC) network, which supports the creation of the baseline energy consumption and the estimation of energy savings due to Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) under the Measurement and Verification protocol. Within this scope, a description of the RC network, including a calculation of the parameters’ needed to execute the ROM, are presented. This ROM methodology is demonstrated on an educational building located in Sant Cugat, Spain as part of the H2020 GEOFIT project. The results presented in this paper demonstrate that the ROM is sufficiently accurate for the creation of the baseline energy consumption and for estimating the energy savings of different ECMs.

Raw data is available for download here.

Data in Brief Paper (2020)

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Paper published in Data in Brief Journal (2020)

Title: Data collected by coupling fix and wearable sensors for addressing urban microclimate variability in an historical Italian city

Language: English

Authors: Benedetta Pioppi (*a), Ilaria Pigliautile (*a), Anna Laura Pisello (*a,b)

*a: CIRIAF – Interuniversity Research Centre on Pollution and Environment Mauro Felli, Perugia, Italy
*b: Department of Engineering, Perugia, Italy

Abstract: This article presents the data collected through an extensive research work conducted in a historic hilly town in central Italy during the period 2016-2017. Data concern two different datasets: long-term hygrothermal histories collected in two specific positions of the town object of the research, and three environmental transects collected following on foot the same designed path at three different time of the same day, i.e. during a heat wave event in summer. The short-term monitoring campaign is carried out by means of an innovative wearable weather station specifically developed by the authors and settled upon a bike helmet. Data provided within the short-term monitoring campaign are analysed by computing the apparent temperature, a direct indicator of human thermal comfort in the outdoors. All provided environmental data are geo-referenced. These data are used in order to examine the intra-urban microclimate variability. Outcomes from both long- and short-term monitoring campaigns allow to confirm the existing correlation between the urban forms and functionalities and the corresponding local microclimate conditions, also generated by anthropogenic actions. In detail, higher fractions of built surfaces are associated to generally higher temperatures as emerges by comparing the two long-term air temperature data series, i.e. temperature collected at point 1 is higher than temperature collated at point 2 for the 75% of the monitored period with an average of þ2.8 [1]C. Furthermore, gathered environmental transects demonstrate the high variability of the main environmental parameters below the Urban Canopy. Diversification of the urban thermal behaviour leads to a computed apparent temperature range in between 33.2 [1]C and 46.7 [1]C at 2 p.m. along the monitoring path. Reuse of these data may be helpful for further investigating interesting correlations among urban configuration, anthropogenic actions and microclimate variables affecting outdoor comfort. Additionally, the proposed dataset may be compared to other similar datasets collected in other urban contexts around the world. Finally, it can be compared to other monitoring methodologies such as weather stations and satellite measurements available in the location at the same time.

Raw data is available for download here.

D4.1 – Options and selections of heating/cooling components for geothermal retrofitting

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This report provides description of the modelling work conducted on the pilot sites of Perugia and Sant Cugat. The pilot sites, the studied heating and cooling systems and the used modelling software are described. Suggested low temperature heating and high temperature cooling system designs are simulated and in the case of Sant Cugat, the results are compared with the current situation and a comparable alternative. The results are presented and discussed.

In the pilot site Perugia, the model was created to be used as a design tool by other partners in the project. In the pilot site Sant Cugat, the simulations show that for the primary school a low temperature heating system coupled with mechanical ventilation would improve indoor air quality with heating demand similar to the current system. For the sports pavilion a clear preference could not be established. The results also show that a high temperature cooling system would be a viable alternative for the administrative building and drastically reduce thermal discomfort. Finally, it was found that a comparative state-of-the-art all-air system that would achieve similar comfort would result in higher heating and cooling demand in all cases. The future works in this task will include work on the Aran Islands pilot.

BS Rome – IBPSA Paper (2019)

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Presentation of GEOFIT at BS ROME – 16th IBPSA International COnference and Exhibition (2019)

Title: Environmental sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Historical Buildings: GeoFit Project Implementation in the Case Study of a medieval fortress in Perugia

Language: English

Authors: Jessica Romanelli (*1), Matteo Di Grazia(*1), Cristina Piselli (*1,2), Anna Laura Pisello (*1,2), Franco Cotana (*1,2)

*1: CIRIAF – Interuniversity Research Centre, University of Perugia, Italy
*2: Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Italy

Abstract: Italian cities are mainly constituted by buildings constructed until the mid-20th century by pre-industrial construction techniques. A HVAC system for the energy retrofit of historical buildings is evaluated when applied in the case study of Sant’Apollinare. It consists of a ground source heat pump a water tank for thermal energy storage connected to a low-temperature radiant system and air handling unit. The building thermal-energy behavior, typically influenced by thermal inertia in historical buildings, and the novel HVAC system performance interactions are comparatively assessed together with more traditional scenarios. Energy demand decreases by about one third compared to the pre-retrofit situation.

Raw data is available for download here.

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s H2020 programme under Grant Agreement No. 792210.

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