Performance evaluation of hybrid earth pipe cooling with horizontal piping system

Earth pipe cooling technology is a building design approach for cooling a room in a passive process without using any customary units. It can reduce energy consumption of the buildings for hot and humid subtropical zones. This chapter investigates the performance of horizontal earth pipe cooling in combination with green roof system. To measure the performance, a thermal model was developed using Fluent in ANSYS 15.0. Data were collected from three air-conditioning modelled rooms installed at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, Australia. One of the rooms was connected to a horizontal earth pipe cooling system, the second to a green roof system and the third standard room had no cooling system. The effect of air temperature, air velocity and relative humidity of the hybrid earth pipe cooling performance were assessed. A temperature reduction of 4.26ºC is predicted for a combined horizontal earth pipe cooling and green roof system compared to the standard room, which will assist the inhabitants to achieve thermal comfort and save energy in the buildings.