Knowledge base

Welcome to the knowledge base of GHEtool Cloud. Below you can find all the information about the cloud platform, tutorials, FAQ’s and general articles in the borefield domain. You can leave your email behind to subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Physics, FAQ
28/10/2025

How to cope with imbalance?

In almost all geothermal designs, you will encounter imbalance. Sometimes this is not a major issue, but in other cases it poses a significant challenge to keeping your borefield affordable and robust in the long term. In this article, we will explore how you can manage imbalance when designing your next borefield.

Exercise
21/10/2025

Exercise on working with irregular borefield configurations

With buildings becoming increasingly complex and versatile, our borefield designs are also moving away from the traditional rectangular configuration. In this article, we explore the importance of using the actual coordinates of the boreholes when dealing with irregular borehole configurations, as well as the significance of the buried depth.

Physics, FAQ
14/10/2025

Single or double U-tube? Part 3: Practical aspects and special probes

In this article, we will give the final perspective on the single or double U-tube debate, namely the practical aspects. Besides that, we will revisit the thermal and hydraulic aspects, but now look at some innovative probes such as the Separatus, TurboCollector, and GEROtherm VARIO and FLUX.

Physics, FAQ
07/10/2025

Single or double U-tube? Part 2: Hydraulic aspects

The debate between the single and double U-tube has many different viewpoints. Last time, we discussed this question from a thermal perspective, and in this week’s article, we will focus on the hydraulic side of things: the pressure drop.

Physics, FAQ
30/09/2025

Single or double U-tube? Part 1: Thermal aspects

One of the central questions in borefield design is: "Which is better, a single or a double U-tube?" In this article, we will begin to unravel this mystery once and for all by looking at the thermal side of the story.

Exercise
23/09/2025

Exercise on designing a collective borefield for an apartment building

When designing collective borefields for apartment buildings, the process is more complicated than simply multiplying the design for a single apartment by the number of units. In this exercise, we will explain how to approach the design of collective borefields and the role that the simultaneity factor plays.

Physics
16/09/2025

Hourly domestic hot water profiles

With buildings becoming increasingly well insulated, domestic hot water demand is becoming more important when designing geothermal borefields. In this article we introduce the new option in GHEtool Cloud to work with hourly domestic hot water profiles.

Physics
09/09/2025

Modelling the FLUX and VARIO probe

As of today, the GEROtherm® FLUX and VARIO probes are available in GHEtool Cloud. In this article, we will shed light on the mathematical model behind these conical probes and explain how it affects their hydraulic and thermal behaviour.

Physics, Tutorial
02/09/2025

Calculate thermal interference in GHEtool Cloud

Typically, when designing borefields, you assume that your project is isolated and that the ground temperature is not influenced by neighbouring systems. In some cases this may be correct, but in others the so called thermal interference between different geothermal systems can be significant. In this article we will discuss the topic of thermal interference and show how GHEtool Cloud can be used to calculate it.

Physics, Tutorial
26/08/2025

Create hourly load profiles in seconds

All advanced methods in GHEtool require an hourly load profile, which is typically not available in the early design stages. However, it is precisely in this early design and feasibility phase that concepts are decided upon and that a deeper knowledge of the geothermal potential is useful. Today we solved this by letting you create an hourly demand profile in seconds!

Tutorial
19/08/2025

Analyse TRTs with GHEtool Cloud

In situ measurements, such as with a thermal response test (or TRT for short), are an essential part of geothermal borefield design. In today's article, we introduce a new feature to analyse these TRTs directly within GHEtool Cloud, streamlining your design process and making it easier than ever to design borefields with confidence.

General, Tutorial
12/08/2025

Getting started with GHEtool (Summer 2025)

In this article we give a quick overview of all the functionalities of GHEtool Cloud as they are available in August 2025. The goal is to show what the possibilities are, how you can get started and where you can find more information related to specific methods.

Tutorial
05/08/2025

Automated reporting with GHEtool (Summer 2025)

Reporting is becoming increasingly important for both drilling companies handling numerous smaller projects and engineering firms managing a few larger projects with multiple design variations. Therefore, automated reporting has always been a key feature in GHEtool Cloud, and thanks to the feedback from our community, we were able to make it even better for you! In this article, we discuss our renewed reporting functionality, making it easier than ever to create professional reports in seconds!

Tutorial
29/07/2025

Better insights with hourly data

We have already used hourly data implicitly in some other articles on hybrid design and active and passive cooling, but we have never really discussed the benefits compared to monthly load simulations. In this article, we discuss the insights you can gain when working with hourly load data.

Exercise
22/07/2025

Exercise on designing a borefield for a single building

In this exercise, we will investigate how you can design a borefield for a single-family building. The goal is to learn the difference between designing for the heating or cooling demand and to see the difference in required borehole length when working with either active or passive cooling.

General
15/07/2025

Why should I install a ground source heat pump?

Heat pumps are becoming increasingly popular, but when it comes to choosing between a ground source heat pump and an air source heat pump, there is quite a lot of confusion. In this article, we will highlight the advantages of opting for a ground source heat pump and will address some of the common misconceptions.

Hybrid systems, Tutorial
08/07/2025

Simulating hybrid systems with GHEtool

Up until now, GHEtool offered the possibility to optimise hybrid systems, but today we are introducing a whole new simulation module. With both simulation and optimisation now available, you have the complete toolbox at your disposal to design better, more efficient hybrid geothermal systems.

Physics
01/07/2025

Modelling the turbocollector

As of today, the Turbocollector from Muovitech is available in GHEtool Cloud. In this article, we will shed light on the mathematical model behind the Turbocollector and explore the concept of turbulence more generally, based on a recent paper by Niklas Hidman.

Tutorial
24/06/2025

Estimating the building demand

One of the key input parameters for any geothermal simulation is the building demand for heating and cooling. Sometimes, these values are known based on detailed simulations or measurements, but more often—particularly in the early stages—they need to be estimated. This article sheds some light on the topic and explores several approaches to addressing this challenge.

Exercise
17/06/2025

Exercise on sensitivities in borefield design

In this exercise, we will investigate the design of a geothermal borefield for an office building. The aim is to gain insight into the effects of the geothermal temperature gradient and to understand which parameters are particularly important when designing a borefield for a building with a high cooling demand.

General, Tutorial
10/06/2025

Simultaneity factor

The simultaneity factor is an important element in the design of collective borefields for multiple users. Think, for example, of apartment buildings with dozens of apartments connected to a central borefield. Should you take the entire installed peak power into account or not? Read the article to discover everything you need to know!

Article idea box

Do you have a specific question w.r.t. the design of borefields with GHEtool Cloud? Let us know and we’ll see if we can make an article out of it!