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Bruce L. Bergman[_2_]

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 14:47:22 GMT, (Doug Miller)
wrote:

In article , Bruce L. Bergman wrote:

That's what I do every time - Put a 90 sweep in the trench and land
it vertically on the face of the footing wall, then duck into the
house above ground.

That's fine for the electrical -- but what about his water line?

Stryped's IP address puts him in northern Kentucky. Not exactly a cold
climate, but definitely cold enough that an exposed water line *will* freeze
in winter.

Right - Which is why I gave him a few options to select from.

The simplest being to bury TWO insulated copper pipes (hard foam
insulation sleeving) below the frost line - one Hot water and one Cold
water. Then you put one of the "Instant Hot" wet-rotor circulating
pumps in the garage that runs water out the Hot pipe and into the Cold
until it gets Hot, then shuts off till it gets Cool again.

That should shove enough hot water back down the Cold pipe returning
to the water heater to keep the line from freezing in all but the most
severe climates. Wastes a bit of gas or oil running the water heater,
but that's cheaper than electricity heating the pipe directly. Heat
trace cables are fine for pipes in a crawl space, but would be
problematic if buried. You can only insulate and armor so much.

They make the pump kits with a shutoff timer which is fine for the
summer months when you would rarely use hot water out there, but you
don't want to use that in the winter.

The best trick would be to rig a Klixon thermostat exposed to the
outside air that kicks the circ pump system on whenever it is below
40F to 45F outside. Even if you forgot to turn it on by hand.

Copper pipe costs more, yes - but you can dig it up and do a sweat
solder repair and it should hold and handle the temp swings a lot
better. Plastic pipe solvent welding flat out isn't as strong, and I
don't want all those solvents leaching into my water.

Oh, and Doug? You never said how to write a URL for lmgtfy. You
just put the operation at the end of the string and it auto-runs?

-- Bruce --