Due to their enhanced cost-effectiveness and efficiency over traditional borehole exchangers, energy piles are increasingly used in Ground Sourced Heat Pump (GSHP) projects. In this paper, the structural characteristics of these two types of heat exchangers and their heat transfer mechanism were discussed firstly. The thermal response tests (TRT) were performed on two testing energy piles in one GSHP project in Nanjing, China. The TRT results were then used to verify the numerical simulations, which suggests that the heat exchange performance of energy piles is superior to that of the traditional borehole exchangers. Meanwhile, the numerical simulation method used in this paper was considered applicable to the optimization design of ground heat exchangers in GSHP system.