Buried air line continued

Thanks for the suggestions for the buried line. Dale, your suggestion for an air line source sounds interesting. I'll have to check it out when harvest calms down. My plan is to bury a conduit of some kind and run the line inside it, possibly with a communication cable of some sort as was suggested. It just might save me money in the long run.

But here's another twist. I forgot about the propane line I have to run out there too. The propane tank that feeds the other two shops is right in the vicinity of where the air source is coming from so a gas line will be in the same trench. I know very little about the rules and regs for buried gas line and what can be run with it. Can the gas line be run in the conduit along with the air line or does it have to be separate. I'd hate to have a conduit full of fumes if it springs a leak. Those fumes will come out one end or the other and both ends will be inside a building. What do I use for gas line? The heater will not be any bigger than 150,000 BTU's and probably less. Lots of questions. I might not be back on the puter for awhile because of harvest but I'll check back when I can. Thanks. Jim

Typically a gas cannot be piped with an oxidizer. You would have a torch if the gas line ruptured and ignited. I do not think it is a good idea.

While you have the trench open put in plenty of extra capacity. When our town's new fire house was being built, one of the techs who came to install something said "I can't put my wires in the same pipe as that guy's wires" The dirt contractor was about to back fill and I remembered that I had a good bit of 1 inch left over from new well installation, so I ran home and got it and we had the pipe for the guy.

back when i ran a underground service crew for the electric company ,it was illegal to run any lines together. and i assume it still is. not that it isnt done. we often would run a primary and secondary in the same ditch but the were seperated by several inches of soil, but since they were both electric it was legal. couldnt run say telephone and gas in the same ditch.

I'm only a simple dirt farmer so don't know exact rules, but I don't think you ever want a gas line in a conduit, it should be direct burried so as not to allow air to move with it or direct fumes to a building? The chance for bad results is pretty high on that....

There are offsets for electric & water as well - in my case it was legal to use the same trench, but you didn't want them laying in the same spot, you needed some dirt between them.

--->Paul

Paul and JackinOK are correct, there are acceptable distance minimums for different kinds of utilities. I also agree running a gas line inside a pipe is a bad idea.

Talk to your propane supplier. 1/2 plastic coated copper is usually used and a regulator at the tank and at the building. Let the propane company do the hook up.Sometimes the propane supplier will sell you the pipe cheap.

poly pipe can be used for propane here,as long as the risers above ground are metal,and you run a tracer wire with it. black pipe is legal also IF its coated pipe,and you tape all joints with a pipe tape. lots of guys here simply run copper all the way,if the runs are short.

Just an idea, maybe look into that bus duct that they use for underground directional boring to run your air line in. Some of it is orange in color and some of it is black. It is one solid piece so you don't have to worry about couplings coming apart or leaking and letting water in(condensation is another issue). Also you cannot bend it very sharp without kinking it to insure that you can pull an air line around the corners easily. It comes in 1000' spools,but if you ask around at a telephone or electric company they may be able to find/cut off the length you need. After it is in you just take a shop vac and some baling twine, tie a Wal-mart bag onto the twine on one end and suck with the shop vac on the other. Now you will have a string to pull in an air line or a stronger rope to pull with.
As far as burying a propane line in the same trench, I personally would stay away from it. Since you already have the trencher there it is only a little time to dig another trench.