Research on Increasing the Building’s Energy Efficiency by Using the Ground Beneath It for Thermo-Accumulation

Tadas Zdankus (), Sandeep Bandarwadkar, Juozas Vaiciunas, Gediminas Stelmokaitis and Arnas Vaicaitis
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Tadas Zdankus: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu Str. 48, LT-51367 Kaunas, Lithuania
Sandeep Bandarwadkar: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu Str. 48, LT-51367 Kaunas, Lithuania
Juozas Vaiciunas: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu Str. 48, LT-51367 Kaunas, Lithuania
Gediminas Stelmokaitis: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu Str. 48, LT-51367 Kaunas, Lithuania
Arnas Vaicaitis: Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Kaunas University of Technology, Studentu Str. 48, LT-51367 Kaunas, Lithuania

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: A whole series of factors influence the temperature of the soil surface and surface layers. The soil surface is heated by solar radiation during the day. It radiates some of the obtained heat at night. The heat exchange between the soil and the atmosphere depends on the air and soil temperatures and the speed of air movement. Precipitation may also affect surface soil layers, but this was not considered in this study. In the mentioned interaction, a specific temperature field of the surface layers of the soil is established. To increase the building’s energy efficiency, the aim is to optimize the operation of its heating and cooling systems and to reduce heat loss to the environment as much as possible. Heat loss through the floor of the building or the walls of the recessed part into the ground changes the established temperature field of the ground. The heat spreads in the soil and is given to the atmospheric air. During the research, to validate the numerical model, the heat flow density was analysed to determine how it changes while maintaining a constant temperature of the heating surface at a certain depth of the soil. It was found that the new thermodynamic equilibrium, depending on the seasonality, can be reached in a time interval of up to a week. The temperature change in the artificially limited volume of the ground under the building or next to it can be treated as the work of the ground thermo-accumulator: its charge or discharge by heat. This makes it possible to reduce the annual energy costs of the building by more than ten percent.

Keywords: heat transfer into the ground; heat loss; heat accumulation; thermal equilibrium; building’s energy efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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