Underground heating pipe questions

George Peteya

Mark, I sold Ecoflex for a while (or tried to, it was way pricey). We were told to never run it in a straight line, but to "snake it," for the very reason you describe.

randy_4

Underground heating pipes

Job opportunity to replace existing copper L hard pipe which is underground. 2-2" Copper pipes are used for heating. 2-1 1/4 pipes are used for domestic water (hot and cold). Heating water temperature is 200 degrees. Existing pipes had no insulation, just laid in screenings. In this same trench is an electric conduit. Boiler building feeds apartments 100 feet underground. What kind of pipe would you suggest? Thanks in advance~Randy

Steamhead

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Steamhead

The Dead Men

used to build conduits to run these pipes in. They insulated the pipes and installed drains so the conduits would not fill with water and saturate the insulation, which destroyed its effectiveness. Any kind of pipe should work OK in this setup.

I think you can get conduits pre-cast now. Sure, it would cost more to install, but they wouldn't lose nearly as much heat from the pipes as before. This would reduce the system's operating cost.

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hot_rod

A couple more ideas

This EcoFlex product is available in various sizes for hot and cold applications. A bit spendy but quick jointless product in a well insulated waterproof jacket. I'm not sure who is currently handleing it. Try Wirsbo or Rehau.

I have also used a product calles insulseal. It's is commonly used with outdoor wood fired heaters. It is an insulated pvc tube that you slide the copper or pex lines inside. A condiut really. Allows you to remove or replace the pipes also. www.insulseal.com

hot rod

Art Pittaway

Perma-pipe/Ricwil

They have a web site and have made direct bury insulated pipe of all kinds for a long time. Pretty good people to work with. We buried the chilled water pipe on a school project, contractor had no problems. Some water pipe is solid foam fill in PVC jacket, you sweat the copper and test the joints then foam and seal with shrink tube. Ever see a piece of 10" shrink tube? Ships from Chicago area I think.
Art

[Deleted User]

Don't forget...

if you use PEX it has a VERY high coefficients of expansion. 1.1" per hundred feet per 10 degrees F chnage in temperature. Too long of a run and you could have pipes coming out of the ground the first time you heat it up to 180 degrees F.

ME

Earthfire

Insulated pex

Uponor ( Wirsbo Parent Co.) markets Ecoflex. Rehau sells Insulpex. Ecoflex has multiple layers of foam insulation in an outer plastic conduit. Insulpex is pexA foamed in in a plastic conduit. Similar but different. take your pick. I think its phillips or hexhead screw which do you prefer?