PEX in electric conduit to barn
orourke
14 years ago
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Comments (15)
alphonse
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agolazypup
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Pex in conduit - will I be able to pull this?
Comments (19)Out of curiosity I pulled up my PVC electrical conduit catalogs and checked the radius of the bends for 90 deg sweep elbows and found they are available it 9.75", 12", 18" & 24" radius. I then pulled up the PPFA (Plastic Pipe & Fitting Assoc.) PEX installation handbook & the Zurn Pipe Co-PEX Installation guide book. Both publications say the minimum allowable bend in PEX tubing is 6x the OD when the tubing is being bent in the same direction as the natural curl of the tubing from the roll. If you have to bend the PEX contrary to the natural curve you must multiply that by 3. 1/2" Pex has an OD of 0.625" so 6 times that would be 3.75" (most installation manuals state a minimum of 4" for 1/2" PEX) That is assuming the bend is with the natural curl of the PEX, if the bend is opposite the natural curl the minimum would then be a 12" radius. Theoretically you could pull the PEX, but before you do, ask yourself a couple questions: How deep is the conduit? Generally they are not too deep because they don't have to worry about electric freezing, but a water line has to be 6" below your frost depth. Are you sure the conduit is deep enough all the way? Now ask yourself if you can live with the pressure loss? A hose bibb is rated at 5gpm and at 5gpm the Friction head loss in 1/2" PEX is 31.4psi per 100ft..so your loss in the PEX run alone would be 62.8psi, never mind how much loss a garden hose would add on the load end....See MoreInstalling underground water line to barn?
Comments (10)Before you begin any work on the project you are required by law to call to have all existing utility line locations marked. This is a free service but they generally require a minimum of a 48hr notice. The actual name of the organization that makes the survey varies from one location to another by example in my region one are calls it "Dig Safe" while in another area it is known as "One Call". You can call your local code enforcement office or any local contractor that does any excavation work, I.E. excavaton contractor, gas company, water company, plumber or electrician, and they will gladly give you the local phone number. They will be able to mark the location of any buried public utility lines which are on your property such as your electric line, gas lines, municipal water, sewer or steam lines, cable tv lines or commercial gas or oil pipe lines. Generally the public lines are only in the easements adjacent to the roadway but such is not always the case. By example, my sister has a 60 acre farm and there is a 16" diameter commercial fuel pipeline running across her property from end to end. Once again, this is a free service but if you fail to do it and you happen to damage one of those lines you can and will be held both civilly and criminally responsible for any damage that results from damaging one of those lines so I caution you to take this step very serious. The line to the barn must originate on the discharge side of the pressure tank which if I understand your description correctly is in the house. You should install a full bore type valve (ball valve or gate valve) where the line ties into the pressure tank or at any convenient point inside the house before the line goes through your footer wall. The line must be buried a minimum of 6" below the frost line. Your frost depth is 24" so your minimum line depth is 30". The line must pass through your footer wall and into the structure at the required depth and you must sleeve the pipe where it passes through the wall. To make a sleeve you first install a short length of pipe at least two nominal pipe sizes larger than the desired pipe through the wall and extending out 2" to 4" on either side. The sleeve is then sealed to the masonary wall by any convient means, mortar, tar pitch, expansion foam etc. After the desired pipe is passed through the sleeve the space between the OD of the desired pipe and the ID of the sleeve pipe is then filled with expansion foam. Operating a ditch witch is fairly easy but they tend to jump around a lot and even an experienced operator will refrain from operating within 3 or 4 feet of the foundation wall or within 5'either side of any buried utility line. For safety these areas should be carefully hand dug. Whether you go over or under the electrical line would be dependant upon the depth of the electrical line in reference to the required depth of the water line. This would be a judgement call once you have hand dug that area and located the electrical line or confirmed that it is below the depth you need. Also, in some jurisdictions buried electrical lines are encased in concrete. When encasing an electrial line in concrete they add a red dye to the concrete so if you happen upon any red concrete try to avoid disturbing it. You could install a Curb box type main shutoff valve at the barn end of your line in the same manner as a residential water service curb side shutoff but these valves are rather expensive and if you have the main shutoff at the house you really won't need it. Check the installation specs on your hydrants carefully. The actual valve of a hydrant is below grade at the bottom of the valve and when you turn the water off any standing water in the riser then backflows and discharges below grade. Genearlly they require a pea gravel bed at the base of the valve to absorb the water in the same fashion as a french drain. Typcially we use roll polyethelene pipe for this type of run. At the pressures permitted on residential water service a 3/4" roll poly line has a friction head loss of one foot of vertical static head per 100 linear feet. (-.434psi per 100ft). Your run is 200' so the friction loss would be approximately 1psi (not enough to be a problem). The change in pressure from elevation is determined by the total difference in vertical elevation from the source at the house to the demand at the barn. The change is .434psi for every foot elevation change. In this case the barn is lower than the house so the pressure at the barn end is actaully higher than the pressure at the house. When the line goes down then back up the pressure loss to the rise is offset by the pressure gain on the fall so that portion is self cancelling and the overall pressure remains the same at the load end....See Moreelectrical conduit for pvc pipe ?
Comments (14)Thanks for the input, but now I'm confused. The schedule 40 PVC pipe I'm using is stamped DWV. But it's pressure rated to 280 psi, and its NSF pw certified (potable water). It's also ASTM D1785, which is the standard for pressure rated PVC pipe. I'm not clear on what is wrong with this. Is it just that I didn't buy it from a pool place? I know the there is a big difference with the fittings, DWV vs. pressure. I have the pressure fittings. Spa flex is rated at 55 psi. Obviously easier, but junk by my standards. I can't get myself to use that, I want to use rigid pipe....See MoreElectric to shed
Comments (126)Rented a Bosch chipping hammer with a ground rod driver attachment at a local place. Had 3 hours before the rate bumped up to the next level. Worked on rod #2 first. It was well soaked over the past week. But again, heavy clay here, doesn't percolate down far. And lots of sandstone boulders, some the size of cars. So I knew it was a roll of the dice. Managed to get rod #2 down to within 18" of grade. That was all she wrote. Rod #1 had to be repositioned slightly to the left. I got it down about 2 feet in the original spot, but it would not go further. So I used an auto floor jack under the clamp and pried it out of the ground. Moved it and tried again. Got it down to within 8" of grade before stalling out. I tried bending over rod #2 into the trench, but spring back is not letting me get it down flat. So do I cut them off, or is there a trick to bending them all the way down? Yes, learned a lot doing yet another project myself. The info here from you guys helped. If I were to do it again, I would hire someone to do that trench or rent a small trencher if they had one that I could use in the space I was working with. Or, I would have just used rigid or intermediate conduit and not had to dig as far down. BUT, I would have rented or purchased a ratcheting manual pipe threader if I went that route. Trying to get the hardware store guys to do pipe threading was just ridiculous....See Morealphonse
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoorourke
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalphonse
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agojake2007
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14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoalphonse
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agobrickeyee
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agogblentz
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agobrickeyee
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agoorourke
14 years agolast modified: 9 years agolazypup
14 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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