Comparative economic analysis of air conditioning system with groundwater source heat pump in general-purpose buildings: A case study for Kayseri

In this study, which aims to reduce energy consumption and dependence on fossil fuels in buildings, the use of an alternative air conditioning system instead of conventional air conditioning systems (CACS), which are widely used in general-purpose public buildings (GPPBs) with high energy consumption, is investigated. A groundwater source heat pump system (GSHPS) was selected as the alternative air conditioning system that exploits an un-derground water source used in Kayseri province (Turkey). GSHPSs were used both for heating and cooling of a sample GPPB and all costs were determined in detail in the study. In order to compare whether the GSHPS is economical or not, a commonly used CACS, which consisted of a central heating system with natural gas and an air-cooled cooling system was selected. After system components was selected according to the thermal loads of the building, the system costs were determined considering the initial investment cost and the operating costs. Results showed that the proposed GSHPS was more economical than the CACS in terms of initial investment cost and equivalent uniform annual cost by 22.68% and 11.09%, respectively, despite being 3.87% more expensive in terms of total annual operating costs.