Geothermal energy with passive or active cooling

Hello everyone!

We are facing the question of whether to equip the brine-water heat pump (brand Ecoforest) of our geothermal system with passive or active cooling. The additional cost from passive to active cooling is only €700, but we have now heard the following counterargument:

The brine cooled by passive cooling already cools the water of the underfloor heating significantly. What active cooling adds in further cooling is often not usable at all because the temperature of the water in the underfloor heating must not be cooled below a certain limit temperature (dew point, etc.). In case of doubt, this excessive cooling is also prevented. That means active cooling only contributes something on the few days when passive cooling is not sufficient to reach this limit temperature.

Can anyone say something about this argument or provide further reasoning for active or passive cooling?

Best regards

jx7

I think that is a strong argument here in D, since on warm days the humidity is always relatively high; the dew point is therefore also quite high and with passive cooling you usually almost reach it. If it is supposed to be really cold, you rather need a proper air conditioner, you can find a lot of information about that somewhere in a neighboring thread.

From experience, I can say that the function is of course not comparable to an air conditioner, but the room temperature can be reduced by about 2 degrees on hot summer days. And that is already noticeably pleasant. And all of this only with the electricity for the circulation pump. Together with closed windows and targeted shading ([Rollos]), we never had more than about 24 degrees upstairs even on extremely hot days. Dew point: a certain minimum temperature specified by the manufacturers cannot be undercut. Therefore, there should be no condensation. In the bathroom and in the basement, I close the heating circuits anyway...