I am running oil pipes under a gravel drive where people walk and cars drive. I was going to put the copper pipe inside some spare MDPE mains water pipe I've got so it should be well protected.
How shallow a trench could I get away with?
It's not (just) that I'm lazy, I'm also trying to avoid damaging some propane lines which also run through the same ground. I will have to cross them at some point. Hopefully they will be buried quite deep.
Cheers
Nick.
Mine go down about 8 inches. But don't get a lot of traffic. The secret is to use sand or fine pea shingle in teh trench to spread the load evenly to avoid crushing. Then top up with MOT type 1, and then your surface layer.
If you are going to take 30 ton lorries over the top on a regular basis, I'd go deeper, maybe 15", or fill the trench with concrete, or arrange some sort of lintel over the top.
The basic thing is to reduce the local tons-per-square-inch by spreading the load out. MOT type one does this, but needs to be deep to spread the load wide.
My builder had the bright idea of running them in scaffold tubes. Kinked the pipe and fractured it drawing it through. Had to dig it all up again. However, if you have a brain slightly more advanced than the average Gibbon, it could be a thought.
A neighbour had shallow oil pipes and in the big freeze Winter 95 whilst sunnying in the Caribbean the oil stopped flowing, the boiler went out, the radiators froze and cracked then the thaw came and they came home to massive damage.
Yes, but they can more easily freeze above ground....
There are standards in force for oil pipe installations which are laid down by OFTEC in conjunction with the Building Regs. Basically since the installation of heating systems came under building control OFTEC standards should be applied. take a look at the OFTEC website
I'll bet you really wanted to know that didn't you?
I doubt if kerosine froze this side of the artic circle, but the presence of water in a low part of the piperun may have formed an ice plug which blocked off the flow of kerosine.
8'' - that's good enough for me. Maybe I'll make it 10'' to be on the safe side, it will only get the occaisonal car driving over it. I haven't heard of MOT type 1 but I shall try to get some. I was going to use sharp sand as well in case a big stone managed to penetrate the MDPE pipe and pierce the copper.
Oops. TBH, I think MDPE pipe would do the job just as well as scaffold tubes, it's very tough stuff. I'm hoping the MDPE pipe will not allow kinking because it is very stiff and likes to follow gentle curves so it will guide the pipe smoothly.
My copper pipe arrives this weekend. I already have a Danesmore Worcester 20/25 boiler sitting in my garage. I'm running the pipe from the existing pool heating oil tank to the house. (The pool is now heated by solar BTW). Work work work.
Nick
I don't believe that was the case though plausible. That winter was pretty severe with pretty low temperatures for several days, certainly in the East Midlands.
Underground is a pretty constant temperature. I believe that a meter down is a steady 10C or something all year round. I think sub zero temperatures only penetrate any distance underground in very cold countries - ie: permafrost.
This is why mains water supplies don't freeze I guess.
Nick
I wonder if you could somehow exploit that to get a slight cooling effect in our UK summers? I suspect A/C is slightly over the top given the short while we'd get the benefits, and it also eats a lot of power. And can be noisy in smaller units I have seen mentioned.
Something using that "natural cool" might make it more comfortable than without but not as OTT as full on AC.
No idea how you'd figure it out, but it seems someone probably should!
Sort of underground radiator/ heat exchanging mechanism of some kind - link back to CH even? Small fan to stir it into room air?
Failing that, what about getting garden water features in on the act? Must be some sort of evap process that could be exploited and then made to look decorative into the bargain?
Can you guess it's a hot one here today? ;O)
Take Care, Gnube
I recently did exactly the same job, and laid the line inside 2 Inch plastic duct.The depth was about 8" and i packed rough sand around the pipe.It goes across my drive as well and i've had traffic on it, so far so good.The only thing i was told was not to put it inside water pipe because if you have workmen in in your later years and they start doing any digging they might cut through it."I think it's against the rules anyway.
You certainly can. I've seen people who use it to cool their overclocked PC's and all sorts of silly things.
Ground sourced heat pumps also use this constant temperature to draw heat from. Air sourced heat pumps tend to get ice on them and need to stop for a while to defrost.
Nick
replying to NickW, MichaelDavid70 wrote: According to OFTEC it should be 40mm compacted sand in bottom 40mm compacted sand over the top and warning tape 150mm below surface
posted on July 8, 2003????
What the post was that new? I was expecting it was from around the turn of the century, and it was an archaeologist trying to find out stuff. Brian
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