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Old 04-30-20, 10:45 PM   #20
menaus2
Apprentice EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox View Post
It looks like your setup is roughly 62 feet (750 inches) long? So, plus or minus 9 inches isn't going to matter much at all. 9/750 = .012, so 1% flow difference. Not worth any worry.


It look awesome by the way!
Whew! Thanks for the info!

Since my last post, I've gotten the underground pipe in (mostly). It was easily a week of digging and probably the hardest part of the whole project so far since it was mostly done with just a shovel. Rocks are not fun!

Basically I dug down 28"-30" made sure everything had a slight slope with a level. I then laid landscape fabric along the bottom of the trench. Over the fabric I laid about 1" layer of washed river rock. Over that base layer of rock I laid a 4" socked perforated corrugated pipe. Then filled the pipe up to its top with more river rock. The extra landscape fabric in the trench folded over the top over the rock & pipe like a big ol' burrito.

Theeeeen, my corrugated underground boiler pipe laid over the drain pipe and I buried by a few inches with some of the nicer soil. I put some strips of 250 psi XPS polyiso over that. I figured it would add some insulation & strength to protect the boiler pipe. The rest of the trench I could backfill with rockier and rougher soil.

At the lowest part of the boiler pipe before it pokes up near the house, I put a bunch of holes in the outside of it in a 1-2 foot section. That style of boiler pipe is basically useless if it fills with water. By keeping the surround soil dry with the drainage below it, then sloping it to a drained low point, it should allow any water that eventually works it's way in to be naturally drained through those holes. Boy I really hope it does, because it was a lot of work to dig it up again! In retrospect, I would've gone with thermopex.

What remains:
1. Hooking up pipes & run sensor wires
2. Run pump & check for leaks
3. Wiring controls
4. Attach glazing
5. The separate pump & controls for the furnace heat exchanger (less important as we're coming out of the heating season).
6. Make things pretty, maybe cut down a few trees if they block the panel too much.
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Daox (05-05-20)