2” HDPE

Simply Rad

I have a project coming up designed to use 2” supply/return lines to the loop field. I have normally used 20’ stick of 2” pipe but my supplier mention a 100’ roll of 2” HDPE.   Has anyone used a roll instead of sticks.  Sounds challenging?   Thanks Jeffrey

EBEBRATT-Ed

I don't know about HDPE. But we used 2" Pex on an underground. The "coil" was like 6' in diameter. One guy threw out his back.

realliveplumber

We use 2" poly for underground gas piping. The rolls are also about 6' in diameter.

Its like wrestling an anaconda. On steroids. It goes anywhere it wants, which is usually where you dont want it.

Mad Dog_2

Yes...Or a 30 Foot Long Burmese Python in the Florida Everglades.  You almost need 3 Strong guys to control it.  Mad Dog 🐕 

dko

Much more laborious and difficult to transport but as always.. fewer fittings the better.

Better for the system, not for your body.

hot_rod

You need to get one of those trailers like the utilities use to transport and lay that yellow plastic gas line HDPE🤔

leonz

Simply Rad said:

I have a project coming up designed to use 2” supply/return lines to the loop field. I have normally used 20’ stick of 2” pipe but my supplier mention a 100’ roll of 2” HDPE.   Has anyone used a roll instead of sticks.  Sounds challenging?   Thanks Jeffrey

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You need to find out what kind of ground you have as clay ground will not help with heat exchange.
Do you know how close the bed rock is?

If you can rent a reel trailer all the better to hold and transport the rolls from the supplier to the work site and unroll the HDPE pipe before it is buried as you want the tension out of the tubing before you work with it.

You mention the loop field, how big is this is this field in square area? Is it designed, with horizontal loops 50-100 feet apart or they using drilled wells with geothermal grouted bore holes?

If you are trenching the geothermal loop you have to be very careful about how deep you intend to bury it as you need help securing the pipe in the ground by covering it every 50 feet or so to make sure it does not spring back up in the hole before it is buried, absolutely no rocks covering the HDPE!!!!!!!!!!

If this is a horizontal loop, will you have time to unroll it all it will unwind gradually and will be easier to work with as long as you have both ends anchored with a couple of cinder blocks on each end.

The Toro Dingo trencher will provide you with a flat trench if the sod ground is not rocky.

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10/8/2023
Edit to add the following:

Burying the 2 inch HDPE in a deep bed(1 foot thick plus) of mason sand will protect the HDPE pipe as long as it is layed on a layer of 6 inch deep mason sand. before it is buried completely with 6 more inches of mason sand and then back filled with rock free fill dirt.

A 2 inch ground loop will require a great deal more surface area possbly 4 times as much area to create enough heat exchange as many more acres of land will be required and the trench would be made deeper to shed the heat into the soil and reclaim a cooler water temperature.

A family friend of mine has a ground based water to air geothermal system and she was fortunate in being able to have a grass airport runway to use for a ground loop system allowing her to have a single loop several thousand feet long to create the heat exchange to seasonal heating and cooling.