I've spent many hours in here digging through posts, doing searches (many links even within the site don't work correctly), etc.
I *THINK* I've seen most of the pertinent posts regarding this, but may have missed some.
I like to do my own research before asking, *BUT* I'm getting to that point where I feel the need to ask.
YES! I *get it*, closed-cell foam insulated, underground, insulated PEX is the best to use if you want to buy something, bury it, connect it, and only 'cry once'. Yet, at $15+ per foot, I'm looking at other, viable solutions from those that have 'rolled their own' so-to-speak....
I have an Eko40 boiler housed in the garage closest to our house (about a 75-ish foot run to the closest entry point to the house with where I want to position it the boiler to the best entry point of the house without creating chaos on that aspect). It will be feeding into a 1000 gallon, pressurized storage tank in the same garage before feeding to the house. I have the ability (Case 580C backhoe with 12" bucket) to trench across our driveway between the two buildings, but am unsure as to how deep I can trench the whole run, as we live basically on a pile of boulders (they make old VW vans seem small at times..).
I *WISH* I had the money to dig it out, just pay for the best 1 1/4" closed-cell-foam insulated PEX piping out there, but money *IS* an object, and this is an experiment on doing it as best I can, on a budget, and then knowing that this Eko40 may have a limited lifespan and I'll have to have everything running, showing a decent ROI, and then replacing it with a newer boiler. Time is 'a-tcking' on years left in my life to have it be a worthwhile investment and pay us back. We live in Southeastern, PA, so winters can be brutal when it decides to be, mild other years. I plan on heating the garage everything is housed in with this (via some diesel truck, aluminum radiators that I have around and some fans behind them, the house, and our DHW needs (batch burning year round from wood sourced mainly (for now) of of our heavily-wooded 10 acres (99% hardwood).
I'd like to dig it the trench once, run water feed from our well, an electric upgrade feed for said garage, and *TWO* runs of insulated PEX (one pipe with two 1 1/4" feeds for the heat feed (redundancy in case one PEX fails), and another with 2, 1 1/4" returns. I figure this will be enough to safeguard against failures until I'm under the ground with it and no longer have to worry about failures.
I've dug into building 3D printed spacers for pipe, buying PVC pipe, etc., putting the pipes in, and drilling some holes or filling from one end with urethane, closed-cell foam, Foam-in-Place ideas, etc. I've also tossed around buying the cheaper, (crappier) wrapped pipe, then sticking that whole pipe into larger, sealed PVC (or welded metal piping), etc., and/or making a sealed run from the garage (including coming completely up through the concrete foundations of both after jackhammering it open and then pouring new concrete again in those areas, but I'd like to avoid that. I don't mind *WORK* (right now). I can dig it with equipment owned (as mentioned above), weld, etc. I just feel that I'm missing something in the variables....
If I were in an area where a trench was easily dug (there may be some drilling, feather/wedge work, or some expanding rock breaker involved), OR I was just paying someone to do it and using 1 pipe with both feed and return in it, I would just suck it up, buy the $15+/foot stuff, drop it in, and hope for the best..
Any ideas/advice/experience is appreciated as I'd like to get this aspect done (or at least ordered) for now, dig the trench and do the work while the weather is decent, and have this boiler setup working before this coming (ever-quickly, it seems the older I get) before the cold hits us again.
Thank you all!
I *THINK* I've seen most of the pertinent posts regarding this, but may have missed some.
I like to do my own research before asking, *BUT* I'm getting to that point where I feel the need to ask.
YES! I *get it*, closed-cell foam insulated, underground, insulated PEX is the best to use if you want to buy something, bury it, connect it, and only 'cry once'. Yet, at $15+ per foot, I'm looking at other, viable solutions from those that have 'rolled their own' so-to-speak....
I have an Eko40 boiler housed in the garage closest to our house (about a 75-ish foot run to the closest entry point to the house with where I want to position it the boiler to the best entry point of the house without creating chaos on that aspect). It will be feeding into a 1000 gallon, pressurized storage tank in the same garage before feeding to the house. I have the ability (Case 580C backhoe with 12" bucket) to trench across our driveway between the two buildings, but am unsure as to how deep I can trench the whole run, as we live basically on a pile of boulders (they make old VW vans seem small at times..).
I *WISH* I had the money to dig it out, just pay for the best 1 1/4" closed-cell-foam insulated PEX piping out there, but money *IS* an object, and this is an experiment on doing it as best I can, on a budget, and then knowing that this Eko40 may have a limited lifespan and I'll have to have everything running, showing a decent ROI, and then replacing it with a newer boiler. Time is 'a-tcking' on years left in my life to have it be a worthwhile investment and pay us back. We live in Southeastern, PA, so winters can be brutal when it decides to be, mild other years. I plan on heating the garage everything is housed in with this (via some diesel truck, aluminum radiators that I have around and some fans behind them, the house, and our DHW needs (batch burning year round from wood sourced mainly (for now) of of our heavily-wooded 10 acres (99% hardwood).
I'd like to dig it the trench once, run water feed from our well, an electric upgrade feed for said garage, and *TWO* runs of insulated PEX (one pipe with two 1 1/4" feeds for the heat feed (redundancy in case one PEX fails), and another with 2, 1 1/4" returns. I figure this will be enough to safeguard against failures until I'm under the ground with it and no longer have to worry about failures.
I've dug into building 3D printed spacers for pipe, buying PVC pipe, etc., putting the pipes in, and drilling some holes or filling from one end with urethane, closed-cell foam, Foam-in-Place ideas, etc. I've also tossed around buying the cheaper, (crappier) wrapped pipe, then sticking that whole pipe into larger, sealed PVC (or welded metal piping), etc., and/or making a sealed run from the garage (including coming completely up through the concrete foundations of both after jackhammering it open and then pouring new concrete again in those areas, but I'd like to avoid that. I don't mind *WORK* (right now). I can dig it with equipment owned (as mentioned above), weld, etc. I just feel that I'm missing something in the variables....
If I were in an area where a trench was easily dug (there may be some drilling, feather/wedge work, or some expanding rock breaker involved), OR I was just paying someone to do it and using 1 pipe with both feed and return in it, I would just suck it up, buy the $15+/foot stuff, drop it in, and hope for the best..
Any ideas/advice/experience is appreciated as I'd like to get this aspect done (or at least ordered) for now, dig the trench and do the work while the weather is decent, and have this boiler setup working before this coming (ever-quickly, it seems the older I get) before the cold hits us again.
Thank you all!
