Abstract Deep borehole heat exchanger (DBHE) based ground source heat pump (GSHP) is a promising system for geothermal energy application in medium-deep layer. In this study, DBHE with non-uniform pipe insulation is proposed and numerically investigated. An effective analytical model is built based on segmented finite line-source method and a newly derived water heat transfer model. The year-round field test data are used for model verification. In-depth analyses are given to a comparison between the uniform and non-uniform insulation cases in both heating and cooling modes, and sensitivity analysis on non-uniformity of insulation. A orthogonal test is conducted for energy performance evaluation and optimization. It is found that DBHE with non-uniform insulation can outperform the one with full insulation in cooling mode, which offers new insights. In addition, an optimum insulation length can be identified through the non-uniformity analysis on insulation. It shows that the order of influence factor is heating season duration ratio, flow rate of working fluid, material thermal resistance non-uniformity of the center pipe, pipe sizing ratio, borehole depth, and insulation length non-uniformity of the center pipe. By choosing the proper system design parameters, the system energy saving could be up to 21.8%.