ᐅ Controlled Residential Ventilation with Cooling: Ground Source Heat Pump Using Brine Loop Instead of Air-to-Water Heat Pump?

Hello everyone,

So far, I assumed that cooling with a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery is done using an additional device that can be retrofitted later. This seems to be only partially true, as it is indeed an additional device, but retrofitting it later is difficult. Or are there systems that operate purely electrically? In our case, a photovoltaic system would be available, so we could technically cool using electricity in the summer.

Cooling with a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery is done either with an earth-to-air heat exchanger (EWT) or a ground heat exchanger (ground loop). Since we need to raise the ground level by about 1.5m (5 feet), we could save on excavation work. It would be interesting to know what a ground heat exchanger would cost. So far, I haven’t found any concrete information because frequently only ground-source heat pumps are mentioned and not ground heat exchangers for mechanical ventilation systems, or if so, usually together with excavation work.

In my research, I came up with the idea of replacing our planned air-to-water heat pump with a ground-source heat pump. After all, I would have to install a system for cooling the mechanical ventilation anyway, so I could just extend the installation somewhat and switch to a ground-source heat pump, right? Or is it not that simple, and what disadvantages would there be? The costs are, of course, also interesting here, especially considering that we wouldn’t have additional excavation work.

I wasn’t able to find clear answers to these three questions and hope someone here can provide some clarification.

Good luck, CK