OWB lines melting the snow

[AIM]

We're having one of those freak 60 degree days here in north west Ohio and I noticed just now that the snow over my lines is gone but everywhere else is still that lovely shade of white. My lines are bout 30" down and I "THOUGHT" pretty well insulated. I'm curious about this. Anybody else have this situation in the spring or during a warmup. Or more importantly does anybody else NOT have this?

 

[John D]

Nothing yet,but i buried mine down 54" to avoid cold soil temps.Our snow is melting here,and i dont see any difference between the area where the line is,and next to it. BTW,what kind of lines/insulation are you using? Also are you getting excess temp drop from the OWB to the indoor boiler?Are you using a lot of wood?I use a lot of wood,IMO,and the first thing i suspected was the lines, i seem to have less than a 3 degree drop in 100ft,so i dont think thats it for me.

 

[chainsawaddict]

30 inches is shallow, IMO. you obviously dont have to worry about frost since you are always running warm water through them, but it doesnt take much heat to help the snow melt.

I run a lot of residential and livestock water lines, and we try to bury at 50" all the time to avoid frost. What Im saying is it works both ways, at a depth where the frost could easily affect the line, the line can easily affect the frost.

If you arent having any problems, I wouldnt worry about it. Do know that if you have a leak though, that water is going to follow the thrench.

 

[bassman]

makes ya feel pretty bad dosent it!!

I too noticed that the dirt covering my lines was soft !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

but I did a test where i took the temp at the boiler and then at the house and also turned on my end loop at the house and took a reading at the boiler send return and I was not dropping more than 1 digit on the temp gun.

I then tried to see how long my boiler would hold a temp of 180 whith the lines running or turned off.

no differance there as well so I dont worry about it anymore.

 

[AIM]

I got to get me one of them radar guns. I've really no clue as to my temps at the house.

 

[bassman]

buy a good one!!
I spent $200 and it was worth it as I can find all kinds of cold spots in the house and fix them.

new window sill is +16 when it is - 35 outside
old one in bedroom is - 30 when it is minus 35 outside!!

 

[DLav]

We're having one of those freak 60 degree days here in north west Ohio and I noticed just now that the snow over my lines is gone but everywhere else is still that lovely shade of white. My lines are bout 30" down and I "THOUGHT" pretty well insulated. I'm curious about this. Anybody else have this situation in the spring or during a warmup. Or more importantly does anybody else NOT have this?

What kind of insulation did you use on your pipes AIM? My pipes are 5' - 6' down and not having any melting. When I first installed it, I had to leave a portion of the trench open near my house for some other work. It snowed before I finished burying the pipes and the snow didn't melt off the outside of the PVC, even with them exposed.

 

[November Wolf]

We're having one of those freak 60 degree days here in north west Ohio and I noticed just now that the snow over my lines is gone but everywhere else is still that lovely shade of white. My lines are bout 30" down and I "THOUGHT" pretty well insulated. I'm curious about this. Anybody else have this situation in the spring or during a warmup. Or more importantly does anybody else NOT have this?

This is exactly why I bought the Logstor pipe. All of the guys I know that have OWB that have different pipe have some snow melting over their pipes. Supposedly this stuff I got will have ZERO snow meltage. I will find out real soon when I get back from vacation and fire up my unit.

 

[Peacock]

That's what I've got also. I've seen an instance where the pipe were NOT buried, but on top of the ground, with snow on it and the snow was not melted!

 

[Slick]

I don't have my line to the house working yet but I'm only 12" or so down...my CB dealer said the thermopex is rated to being above the ground, we only bury it to protect it from driving over it, he says 8-10". I honestly don't buy into the bury it deep to insulate it concept...I guess the ground is warmer down there so smaller temp change from our boiler water to ground but to me that's just a bandaid...your lines still aren't insulate well enough if your using the ground as insulation.

I do have a 4 foot piece of 6" pvc out the back of my CB into my shop it has my two lines to the shop surrounded by insulation, completly above ground and there was snow on it last week with 180degree water running through it...the snow was softer than the pvc pipe next to it which doesn't have water in it yet but I thought just having snow on it as a good thing

 

[AOD]

Reminds me of when I was in college, there were steam tunnels running all through the campus with 125# steam lines inside them. After an early snow if you went up in a building you could see all over campus where the steam tunnels ran.

 

[November Wolf]

Logstor recomends to bury their stuff at 24" just to protect it. Pipes that are burried 3- 4 feet down have the most problems especially when ground water contacts the water lines. Ground water can cause an excessive amount of heat loss and greatly increase the amount of fuel consumption. This comes right out of my CB manual.

 

[modn]

Logstor recomends to bury their stuff at 24" just to protect it. Pipes that are burried 3- 4 feet down have the most problems especially when ground water contacts the water lines. Ground water can cause an excessive amount of heat loss and greatly increase the amount of fuel consumption. This comes right out of my CB manual.

I buried my lines at 24". I'm looking at where I buried it and no snow melting at all. With the warm weather right now there is very little left anyway. All this with the inferior wrapped lines in a 4" ads pipe. I was hoping I didn't make a bad decision, but it seems all right so far. I'm on a gravel base though with no ground water so I'm sure that is good. I'm sure the other foam filled pipe is better, but this is doing good so far.

 

[grandpatractor]

Mine are down 24'' and I will get a little snow melt on the warmer days where the lines run. Do I worry about it? No, I got lots of wood. I think the loss is pretty minimal.

 

[J.W Younger]

best I can remember(its been a long time) my lines are 18" deep. about a 40' run.sometimes as the snows melting off you can see where the lines run part of the way.seems like I,m adding more water this year ,hope I don't have a leak. I parked my 26' camper over where the lines run, hope I am just being paranoid. been adding about 1/2 gallon per week, this sound like too much?

 

[modn]

best I can remember(its been a long time) my lines are 18" deep. about a 40' run.sometimes as the snows melting off you can see where the lines run part of the way.seems like I,m adding more water this year ,hope I don't have a leak. I parked my 26' camper over where the lines run, hope I am just being paranoid. been adding about 1/2 gallon per week, this sound like too much?

Has it been colder than usual.....steaming more with more heat?

 

[J.W Younger]

Has it been colder than usual.....steaming more with more heat?

has been in the low teens some maybe a bit cool for the time of year anyhow if it is leaking it ani't bad yet.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Mine are 30" deep and in Urecon insulated conduit and I have never been able to detect any differance in snow melt above my lines, even light coatings close to freezing. I would think that any detectable melting would indicate a LOT of heat loss, not just a little?

 

[fletcher0780]

I've got cheap TSP buried 24" and get snow melt, but my thermometers only indicate a 2-3* loss over 160'. My TSP is 1.25" pex wrapped in solarguard and in a 4" corrugated drain pipe. It cost me $6/ft compared to $18/ft for the really good stuff. I'd be concerned if I used lots of wood, or had a 10* temp loss, but I'm pretty happy and saved over $2000

 

[bowtechmadman]

I have TSP buried btw 3 - 4' running 120+'. I get some snow melt. Only losing about 3-4* from boiler to house. I don't think 1/2 gallon a week is bad. I'm probably pretty similiar...have to add once a month few gallons.