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The Building: As the building is being designed there are opportunities to recommend changes that can have a significant impact on the peak heating and cooling loads of the building as well as the annual energy needs. Some of the changes that can have an impact include:

• Glass specifications
• Wall and roof construction
• Lighting specifications and controls
• Potential for connections to other buildings to build load diversity

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The Mechanical System: While the design of the mechanical system is being developed there are opportunities to change the heating and cooling loads, as well as the annual energy loads of the building. Changes that can make a significant impact include:

• Efficiency of the equipment selected
• Distribution system design
• Ventilation strategy
• Domestic hot water production
• Thermal energy storage - see IKEA case study and St. Pierre Church case study. You may also want to download an ASHRAE Journal article about the integration of energy storage with GCHP systems 
• Waste heat recovery
• Hybrid options (fluid cooler, auxiliary heat source, solar thermal, alternate heat dissipation methods such as snow melt) - see IKEA case study

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The Site & Geology: The land area available for construction of the GHX and the geology of the site is one thing a GHX has no control over. They have to work with what is there and develop a design that works efficiently with the building and mechanical system that is being built on the site. 

Even though the site & geology are fixed, there are opportunities on many projects to give consideration to:

• Different types of GHX (vertical, horizontal trench, horizontal bore, surface water and groundwater)
• Integration of different GHX types (horizontal and vertical, vertical and surface water, vertical & groundwater, etc.)
• GHX configuration (borehole depth, diameter, spacing, trench spacing, pipe size, pipe placement, grout specification, etc.)

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