Underground hot water lines

[yoderconsult]

Hi. I am installing a solar hotwater system on my barn roof which is about 70 feet away from the house and hotwater heater. My plan is to bring the cold water feed into the 120 gallon storage tank in the barn then the warmed water will go the the hotwater tank in the house upon usuage demand.
My question is what is the best way to insulate those lines that will be running underground from the barn storage tank to the hotwater heater in the house. I really want to minimize heat loss from the water sitting in the line.

Thanks

 

[quark]

Check my reply in a similar post thread378-102246

Regards,

 

[a31ford]

Yoder,

I have no Idea of where you are (geographicly), I'm in centeral Canada, and it gets quite cold here (-40f) yes that's Minus.....

I'm using "kiytec" hydronic pipe, for my underground runs (3/4" ID) (Total length in the ground 460ft) 2 180ft runs, and 2 50ft runs.

I used plastispan board (Open bead styrofoam board) 4" thick by 8 1/4" wide each (2 sections one under with releifs cut out for the pipe, and one over plain (sandwich style)). I used a 1" bull nose bit in a router to cut the grooves in the lower section. (in a router table with a dust collector running) (makes quite the mess).

When installing the foam, we layed the grooved one down, (grooves facing up) and simply rolled the semi-flexable pipe right into the grooves, once the pipe was in place we layed the upper section ontop, and back filled the entire thing.

the trench was roughly 4-5ft deep at start, with the 8" of foam that left us "in the frost line" (frost goes down 6ft in a cold winter, 4' in a warm one).

The effective R value is around R-20 have not had one freeze yet and temp difference on the 180ft run (one pipe run) is 0.25 deg total, at 150f input temp. (can't count the other way as it is the return from the heat exchanger).

I have some pictures of this installation, if you are interested.



Regards,
Greg,

Called "Mr. Fusion" by the Locals

 

[hp1]

Howdy
Newbie to forum , asking if a31ford has a pic of the solar collector he built/uses ? I gotta start somewhere , trying for natural flow in a conical shaped spiral of black ,el cheap-o polypipe for now . No idea yet on how to build ,insulate, seal the box it fits in for Northern Alberta, January, low hours of daylight , or if they are of any use in winter.
Thanks a heap .

j.