2000 Volume 44 Pages 235-240
“Michi-No-Eki”, HACHI-KITA has been in operation on Route 9 in Muraoka-cho, Hyogo Prefecture, since March 1998.“HACHI-KITA” has two types of snow melting systems using terrestrial heat. One is a Reservoir Heat Collection System (RHCS) applied to a 1120 m2 parking lot that is used to put on or take off tire chains. The other is a Bore-hole Heat Exchange System (BHES) used for melting snow on a 310 m2 sidewalk. This paper deals with the thermal behavior of the fluid in the water tank and in the surrounding ground, as well as the interaction between them. The snow melting performance of the RHCS was completely satisfactory and this made it possible for people to walk from the parking lot to the “Michi-No-Eki” buildings on a snow-five pavement The fluid temperature was as high as 19.8°C on December 31 and a zone with high ground temperature (17-19°C) existed around the tank in winter, even though the ambient ground temperature was only about 15°C. From these results it was confirmed that the effect of the thermal energy storage during summer persisted until the following winter.
