This might help guys putting in underground water lines for boilers . It's a big deal . Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
I have heard guys say my 100ft run only looses 5 degrees . Some guys must really love cutting wood because that's crazy lol . Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
I'm in the process of fixing my dads self installed boiler/piping/heat exchange system . It's truly a mess. One of the first things I'm doing in the spring is digging a parallel trench and installing drain tile. Water lays over about 1/2 the run to the house 6 months out of the year. I gotta believe there's massive heat loss from this.
To give you idea let's say your loosing 5 degrees in 100 foot run .. it will take 127 lbs of wood a day just for the trench . I did 2 different ways I sprayed in polyurethane 4 inch's around my lines 2 zones and used Insul seal on the other run you can Google it I'm in heavy wet clay in a woods . So I have worst mother nature can be. I'm loosing under 1 degree. The 2 runs with foam are 20 years old and Insul seal is 7 years old . Both are time tested. Run length 127 feet and 105 feet and Insul seal 50 feet. 282 feet in the ground . Reason I found all this info I was testing mine .. thought I would share the info.. Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
My 85 feet of thermopex never showed a measurable loss, the ground over it stayed frozen all winter. With a loss of 5 or 8 degrees you would do better to run above ground as air is much less dense than dirt or water.
How olds your thermopex ? Mines less then 1 degree in whole system 282 feet. Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
Mine thankfully is 6 months old with no heat loss that I can measure. Thank you for putting up the math, that equates to a crap ton of wasted wood/work.
There's a lot more to underground hot water lines . Just the soil it's a big deal .. heavy moisture holding clay can put your insulation wits to the test. Slope on the trench for drainage is a big deal . Pee rock in the bottom is a must if water does show up it can perk in to the ground below because you have to come to grips with lot of realities. One thats hard to get your head around if snows not milted on top ground I'm not loosing any heat . Not true moisture under lines can pull heat from bottom of any insulated pipe . Radiant heat is basically unstoppable overtime. These are just realities to bring to most minimum. Another one about logstor that's a myth .. I can lay it on top ground and snow sits on it . This really means cold in the air already penitrated outside layer and it's colder then 32f so becareful of miss information . Insulation around pipe is same story as .. there's no replacement for displacement . Gearheads will like the comparison. Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
The water laying on the ground has bothered me for a long time. My dad just never wanted me to do anything about it even if I foot the bill. The last 4 years I've had to feed this beast 2-3 triaxle loads of wood and it hasn't been fun alongside feeding my furnace and work. He's passed and I inherited the house so now I'm gonna fix stuff the way it should be . Another big heat loss in the system is uninsulated piping laying on the dirt in the crawl space going to the distribution bank. I was in the crawl space last winter and the dirt was hot enough you didn't want to lay on it. I may hang or just raise the piping off ground onto cement blocks for now. Next year I may lay the piping in poly drain tile and have someone spray it .Want to put in some heat exchangers and do away with the base board so I may wait and fix everything all at once.
The spray foam of choice is polyurethane spray in close cell get 2 to 4 inch around lines . Or if you want best premade you have deal with 10 ft sections of Insul seal insulated pipe and lines can be changed without digging . It's only thing that works in heavy clay or higher moiture areas . It saves you tons of wood . I would only do this if your live in a place long time 20+ years . Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk
