I know this has been discussed many times already and I have read through all of the threads I could find. I still want to make my own pipe. I want to hear from people who have made their own and are satisfied with the results and possibly have some heat loss numbers to back it up. I was looking to run 2 1 inch lines for the boiler and 2 3/4 lines for the DHW. I was looking at using pool noodles because they are closed cell foam, cheap and are much thicker than any closed cell pipe insulation that I could find. Also found the LOW E brand 1/4 inch thick foil faced insulation that alot of ebay sellers use. I found a price of $460 for 120' by 4' roll. Rapping 5 raps with that I could get 100 feet out of it but is pretty pricy I thought. So what have other people used that have been successf in not losing more than a few degrees over their run?
I did this with mine. 2, 1 inch and 2, 3/4 inch wrapped in Solar Guard (1/4 inch foil faced insulation) About 4-5 layers of wrap.
I ran everything through a 6 inch schedule 80 pipe. Anyway, I think it was called schedule 80. It was thinner walled than schedule 40 and had belled ends that I glued together. I have a 100ft run from boiler to house.
This will be my forth season. I have not noticed a heat loss. I have a ranco thermostat at boiler with temp readout and a thermometer inside house at the heat exchanger. Whether one thermometer is off or what, they always read the same temperature. So it must not be losing much.
It was a mother getting it wrapped and all stuffed in the 6 inch pipe.
Here is how I did it.
I got two sections of the 6inch pipe and ratchet strapped one piece to the tailgate of the truck and ratchet strapped the other section of 6inch pipe to a saw horse. I got the four pieces of pex and pushed them through one section of 6inch pipe. They came out of that pipe and there was about a 6 foot gap before they went into the other section of 6inch pipe.
This way I could somewhat contain the four sections of pex to be wrapped with the solar guard. I first taped the pieces together then wrapped with Solar Guard and zip tied again to hold the Solar Guard in place.
I did not seperate the sections of pex. I just wrapped them all together. I know others advise to seperate but I didn't. That pex is just too hard to straighten out and to contain.
The Solar Guard came in 4'x50' rolls I would unroll about 5 feet and cut. I'd wrap it lengthwise and zip tie. I got about 4 or 5 wraps. I would then unroll another 5 ft section and butt it up against the pervious section. I would then just wrap with some duct tape at the joint between the sections.
I used lots of duct tape and zip ties to keep the four sections of pex together under the insulation.
Once I got the 6inch pipe in the trench and glued together, I ran a wire eel, for unclogging drains through the 6 inch pipe. I tied a rope on it and pulled it through. I wrapped, tied, taped the rope to the four insulation wrapped pex pipes and pulled it through.
It was a bear, me and the wife, one pulling, one shoving that through the 100ft run of 6 inch pipe.
Anyway it worked. It was alot of work but I am glad how things turned out.
My pipe is burried about 3 ft and I have seen very little snow melt where it is at.