Regarding digging trenches on the private land for new services; the depth requirements for a water supply pipe is 750mm, the depth for gas \electric is 450mm. I'm guessing I'd have to dig 750 then make a "step" up at 450 where gas\elec will go (gas going in first). Is this allowed?
Is there any sort of requirement for separation of gas and electrical services? If someone sticks a JCB through a gas pipe, it's a lot more likely to go "bang!" if they went through a mains cable at the same time.
There was a long cold spell one winter, can't recall the year, but it was where I was living in the second half of the 1980's. Several peoples' water mains did freeze around me, and they were 18" down. For the first couple, the water company came around with giant jump leads and passed a high current through the steel pipes to thaw them. Then it started happen to too many other people, and they had to ration it to really needy cases only.
That made me think that if I ever needed to relay my water main, I would snake something like a 1mm^2 singles along it's length and bring the ends out accessibly. Probably wouldn't do anything else at that point, but if it later froze, I'd then work out how to pass something like 20A along it to provide gentle warming to the pipe.
Well at the regulation depth of 750mm for water the chances of it freezing in this country are quite remote. Now if had to be at 18" like your example and you could get it past the BCO then some heater wires might not be a bad idea.
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