Plumbers and my OWB

[cantoo]

CentaurG2, anti scald valve should be plumbed into the line. It mixed cold water with the incoming hot water to prevent scalding.

 

[cantoo]

It doesn't work here due to my soil conditions but lots of people do use the foam wrapped and have good results. And lots of people use it and have poor results. I think you need to do a bit more research and then supervise what they do. If you end up burning twice the amount of wood then your relative might decide he is already in good enough shape and you will be running the saw.
If you have the right conditions and do a good job the wrapped lines will work for you. Need good draining soil, good quality plastic tile for the lines and enough wraps on the lines. Wet area will not work. 1 pinhole in the tile and you will flood the lines in no time. Wet lines mean huge heat loss.

 

[panolo]

If you do spray foam it make sure your lines aren't touching each other and they are not touching the sides of the tube you use.

 

[NSMaple1]

It doesn't work here due to my soil conditions but lots of people do use the foam wrapped and have good results. And lots of people use it and have poor results. I think you need to do a bit more research and then supervise what they do. If you end up burning twice the amount of wood then your relative might decide he is already in good enough shape and you will be running the saw.
If you have the right conditions and do a good job the wrapped lines will work for you. Need good draining soil, good quality plastic tile for the lines and enough wraps on the lines. Wet area will not work. 1 pinhole in the tile and you will flood the lines in no time. Wet lines mean huge heat loss.

IMO if people have had decent luck with wrapped lines, they are lucky. That stuff is a wick, and even with well draining soil, all the rain that falls still has to seep down through the soil passing the lines on the way. Would be too big of a roll of the dice for me.

Also on spraying in place - I don't think you'd even need to have the pex inside another tube or piping. Just the pex then the foam then the dirt.

There is a very decent thread on this very thing, at another place. Linking that here is illegal I think, but it's at earth. With a H in front.

 

[rancher2]

I have four lines one inch 450 feet to my house I run three furnaces and domestic water we attached the four lines to two inch pink foam and spray foamed in the trench its been there 10 years and I have no problems with heat loss.

 

[Wayned24]

UPDATE: Plumbers came out yesterday to look at the lines. They've agreed to take the old lines out and install the correct PEX while they eat the cost of labor. The only thing I'll have to pay for is the cost difference on the PEX. The insulation still won't be there, but I'll just be happy to have the right lines in. I understand I'll lose some heat, but hopefully it won't be too bad since the lines are buried fairly deep (about 42").

 

[NSMaple1]

Well it is your money & setup but using uninsulated lines would seem to be quite a waste.

Did you really mean no insulation? At all?

 

[panolo]

I'm with NSMaple here. If you mean completely non insulated your making a mistake and now is the time to correct it. Even if you want to go cheap you can run it through tile and have it spray foamed. Would be 10000x better than just laying bare in the ground.

 

[CUCV]

If the water lines are part of a pressurized system not only do they need to be able to handle the temperature they need to have an oxygen barrier too.

 

[lindnova]

Gonna loose a LOT of heat that way.

 

[Stihl310]

UPDATE: Plumbers came out yesterday to look at the lines. They've agreed to take the old lines out and install the correct PEX while they eat the cost of labor. The only thing I'll have to pay for is the cost difference on the PEX. The insulation still won't be there, but I'll just be happy to have the right lines in. I understand I'll lose some heat, but hopefully it won't be too bad since the lines are buried fairly deep (about 42").

Seriously, please don’t do this. You’ll be far more ahead to heat with natural gas. All the work you’re putting into cutting wood and massive amounts of heat are going right into the dirt.

Buy the thermopex and save yourself years of headaches and wasted energy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cantoo]

Can you take pics of the install for me? I would like to see this.

 

[cre73]

I will also encourage you not to go this route. My friend tried this with a 50ft run to his shop. Huge amount of heat loss, muddy ground, tons of wood. That was buried a full 48”. Two years later we finally buried in insulated lines. Good heat cut his wood usage by over 50%.

 

[cantoo]

Just curious but in your last house did you have a hot water heater? Was it in a tank and wrapped with insulation? And it was in your house where it's warm and dry? I'm a pretty cheap guy but I know when to cheap out, buried lines are not the place to "save".