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expansion

john_177
john_177 Member Posts: 3
in THE MAIN WALL
I'm a mechanical contractor in Colorado. The reason I'm emailing you is to see if you could help me with an expansion problem. What I have is an array of 30 flat plate collectors in a field. It is approximately 200 feet from the mechanical room to the collectors. I ran 2 " copper both to the collectors and from them (supply, return). I know that the copper will expand about 3 to 5 inches on each run. How do I account for this? My supplier can't find 2" expansion joints and what they recommended was braided flexes, but I don't see flexes accounting for 4 inches of expansion. My other option is loops of 2" soft copper in the ground and build insulated boxes to allow for the expansion, but this doesn't feel very professional and I don't know what kinds of velocity problems this could cause on the pipe because I have a 5 horse pump moving the glycol mix.

Anything would help thanks
john

Comments

  • bert
    bert Member Posts: 50
    exp.

    In the past I have used 4 circular loops of 1" pex to equal the volume and flow of 2" copper. This can be done fairly compactly, but you would be limited to 200 F max. system temperature due to the pex.
  • Brad White
    Brad White Member Posts: 2,399
    Metraflex

    http://www.metraflex.com/

    They have a line of nice flexible "hairpins" as well as in-line devices which make compensation a snap. All materials and joint methods too.
    "If you do not know the answer, say, "I do not know the answer", and you will be correct!"



    -Ernie White, my Dad
  • Big Ed_3
    Big Ed_3 Member Posts: 170
    Off Set

    You off set the braided flex from line of run and use one on each end .
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