Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
|
Cathryn
|
Anyone any ideas on stopping water freezing?Parts of the farm are fed with spring water. The water drops quite steeply through a dense woodland down to the first resevoir. It's carried in a blue pipe that isn't buried - it would be near impossible to dig a straight trench down through the wood. When it looks like it might freeze, taps have to be left running. Not too serious an issue as there's plenty of water in winter but even then it can still feeze up.
We cannot think of anything we could lag the 300m or so with that wouldn't be nibbled at and destroyed by animals. Does anyone here have any suggestions at all please?
|
Brownbear
|
Take the pipe around the edge of the woodland, and bury it there instead.
|
Cathryn
|
Too much of a risk of airlocks that way. We've tried that before. It's a gravity siphon feed and that way means it goes up a little first. Airlocks are a nightmare to get rid of then.
|
gardening-girl
|
We have the same issues at Dillington.BTL covers the pipes with straw and fleece.
|
ros
|
electic trace heating tape?
http://www.eshltd.com/
|
Green Man
|
My father heaps dung from the stable over the outlet of his CH oil tank to stop the fuel from freecing. Yuck, I know, but it works all winter.
|
Hairyloon
|
Can those pipe laying moles not be hired?
|
dpack
|
bubble wrap.?
|
Cathryn
|
These are great ideas and we have considered all of them at some time or another. The wrapping ones would work temporarily. Bubble wrap is a possibility but is likely to get nibbled by animals. The mole wouldn't cope with the tree roots. The electric heating one would be possible and I will ask how much it costs but as they sell it in metres I doubt it. It's at least 300m long.
It froze once last year because we didn't leave a tap running in time. So I was hoping that someone on here might have some completely way out idea that we hadn't already considered. 
|
Green Man
|
This reminds me of a farmer I knew who's water froze under the tarred back yard. He laid coal along its track and lit the coal. Good idea? No the tar went on fire too. 
|
Bulgarianlily
|
Is the problem not getting the taps on in time when it freezes (and I know how that feels from 28 years of relying on a pump and spring, sometimes when we got it wrong we would be without water for 6 weeks!)?
Is there some kind of temperature operated valve that would open automatically when the temperature drops? Other than that, couldn't you heep earth over the pipe rather than try to dig it in? Maybe with a mini-digger or something?
|
Hairyloon
|
The mole wouldn't cope with the tree roots. |
Not sure how they actually work, but couldn't you just send it a bit deeper?
|
dpack
|
These are great ideas and we have considered all of them at some time or another. The wrapping ones would work temporarily. Bubble wrap is a possibility but is likely to get nibbled by animals. The mole wouldn't cope with the tree roots. The electric heating one would be possible and I will ask how much it costs but as they sell it in metres I doubt it. It's at least 300m long.
It froze once last year because we didn't leave a tap running in time. So I was hoping that someone on here might have some completely way out idea that we hadn't already considered. |
such things are industrial and a big roll is cheap ,mice need ages to "borrow"good nest stuff , uv may be a problem but a few leaves will sort that
ps if a few mice live in the wrap their body heat will help 
vegplot
|
I made a hardened insulated pipe out of black guttering down pipe, some of that grey foamed insulation and the blue main pipe. All fitted together very snugly one inside the other. Not sure I'd wont to do long lengths of it though.
CAT use a custom made heat pipe to distribute heat from their boiler throughout the building on site. Might be worth having a word with them.
|
dpack
|
300 metres is a long way
|
dpack
|
small tracked digger ?
300 metres on slopes in woodland is a few weeks minimum for digging it in
how has it worked historically ?
|
Ty Gwyn
|
Mole Plough`s are tractor mounted,you dig a hole to start them off with,then they drag the pipe through the ground behind the Mole Share,which has a blade from the Share to the surface that slices through the ground.
Depends on the type of tree`s and how dense they are,if a tractor can navigate between,
Mini digger would be more versatile for a job like that.
|
dpack
|
unless it is vital to have water on tap rather than in a tank on a trailer ,when it is cold i recon it may be too much bother to sort keeping the pipe working
|
vegplot
|
Rather than small pipe you could use a much large pipe or open gutter and have water free flowing to a header tank with overflow close to the house.
|
Bernie66
|
Is there any way you could empty the pipe of water after use with a pump at the bottom and then use it to refill it before relying on syphon effect?
|
vegplot
|
Yoke and two buckets. Proper downsizing.
|
dpack
|
that should read ox ,yoke and two buckets
|
Bulgarianlily
|
I made a hardened insulated pipe out of black guttering down pipe, some of that grey foamed insulation and the blue main pipe. All fitted together very snugly one inside the other. Not sure I'd wont to do long lengths of it though.
|
You brilliant man, why didn't I think of that for the one meter of exposed pipe to my free standing outdoor tap? Thanks for that, time to do it before the first frosts arrrive here!
Cobnut
|
unless it is vital to have water on tap rather than in a tank on a trailer ,when it is cold i recon it may be too much bother to sort keeping the pipe working |
That would be my suggestion too.
Cathryn, is there some way of closing the water pipe at source and finding another way of watering the animals until the freeze is over? Would it be less hassle than fighting the icy pipes problem?
Cathryn
|
It's actually water for four houses. (Not ours ironically.) The sheep all have access to streams or ponds.
I am going to look at and consider lagging with bubble wrap (and read the other suggestions again on here). However, it was -11C last night and the water is still flowing.
|
chez
|
Can you stick it inside another, bigger, pipe? And shove straw in that?
|
shadiya
|
Did the mere addition of guttering stop it from freezing? 
Our water pipe has lagging and extra insulation and is frozen up already and it's only minus two here.....
|
smellingas
|
The problem with insulation is not generally understood because we are told by the experts that it is the answer to all ills.
Basically it is this: What keeps heat in keeps cold in!
When insulated pipes freeze they take a lot longer to defrost than pipes with no insulation.
I am faced with a similar situation, though not of such magnitude.
My solution is the addition of a second pipe (10mm) along and back the length of the supply pipe. This could be cabled tied to it and simply insulated with a light covering of soil. At the house end it can be joined to a sealed heating system with the use of a couple of zone valves, its own pump, and a frost stat. If the heating system isn’t suitable, an immersion heater tapped into a steel tube (Dunsley made one at one time as an addition to solid fuel heating) with an expansion vessel, inlet and outlet, and again pump and frost stat, could be used as a sealed system. In either way it would be fully automatic. Both methods would need heating antifreeze.
It has to be a sealed system as the supply tank is higher than the highest outlet to any house.
|
Home Home Home Home Home