06-02-2025 JDA Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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XCEL ENERGY WORD DOCUMENT TITLE 4 © 2024 Xcel Energy Inc. WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF A TEN SYSTEM? There are two primary components of a TEN system: customer-sited heating and cooling equipment (consisting of water source heat pumps), and a central geothermal loop. WATER SOURCE HEAT PUMPS A heat pump uses electricity to move heat from one place to another. It can heat or cool a space by absorbing heat from the air, ground, or water. It typically has a compressor, refrigerant, and a fan or pump as its main parts. It works on the principle that when a gas is expanded, it gets colder; and, when a gas is compressed, it gets hotter. By expanding and compressing gas (the refrigerant) at different locations, it’s able to move heat from one location to another. Heat pumps are more efficient and environmentally friendly than traditional heating and cooling systems because they do not burn fuel to create heat. They are also more versatile because they provide both heating and cooling with one system. There are different types of heat pumps, such as air-source and water-source. They vary in how they collect and release heat from different sources. Air-source heat pumps extract energy from ambient air and are the most common for residential use. Ground - source heat pumps are a type of water-source heat pump that also includes buried pipes or other equipment to extract energy from the ground. Ground-source heat pumps are more expensive but more efficient than air-source heat pumps. The systems used in this demonstration will be water source heat pumps and will move heat from a central water loop to each individual building. Because heat pumps move heat, as each building is heated, the central water loop will get colder. The opposite is also true – as each building is cooled, the central water loop will get hotter. The second component of the system – the central geothermal loop – has the sole job of keeping the central water loop a mild enough temperature so each customer’s heat pump has enough thermal energy available to heat and cool their building. CENTRAL GEOTHERMAL LOOP The central loop component in a TEN system is a shared underground loop of pipes that circulates water and antifreeze. It keeps the temperature of the water loop mild enough to allow each building to extract enough thermal energy to heat or cool the facility. Ideally, the temperature of the central water loop will stay as close to the ground temperature as possible.