digging a trench, any suggestions

[TriMax]

I have a thread on the Large Tank forum in which I ask which chiller to buy for a large system. You give people a chance to express their opinion and they will do it. Hope there were no hard feelings created. Part of my last entry was:

I have dug a trench along the front of my house from the garage (power box/panel) to the back of my house (fish room). I still have to go through the outside wall twice.

In the trench I will put:

More electricity to run the pumps, lights, and etc
Electrical line for emergency power (generator)
Two pvc pipes for flow to and from the chiller located in the garage
Pvc pipe for top-off (reservoir located in garage)
Pvc pipe for water change (reservoir located in garage), although I am not sure if I should use the same pipe for draining and filling.

Is there anything else I should put in the trench -- Something that I can put in garage and not in the fish room? Once I fill-in the trench, I do not want to think of something else.

It has been really hot the last 3 or 4 weeks digging the trench. I am glad I did not see how funny I must have looked. In case any of you were wondering, if you hit you big toe on the left foot with a pick, IT HURTS, alot.

Do you folks in the ETRC have any suggestions? Any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks

Eddie

 

[stevensmd]

fwiw, if you put a pvc pipe in there with a drawstring, you could possibly use it in the future.
dave

 

[awcurl]

Put your make up water in the garage and run the water line feeding your make up water to your tank in the trench. You could also run wiring for a level controller in the trench as well.

 

[Runner]

If you plan to put a generator or generator connection in the garage, we can install a seperate sub-panel (with 4, 6 or 8 single-pole breakers) and transfer switch just for the generator loads. Then you could go to generator power by throwing a switch.

The only other concern would be freeze protection in the event of power failure. The sump in the garage would need to be low enough to drain the entire line on power loss or pump fail. During operation, freezing would not be a problem and might even give your chiller a break every now and then.

 

[Lint_Licker]

What about heat issues? With the heat wave going on right now is also heating up the ground. Im not sure how it is in KTown, but its been hitting over 100 degrees here. That will have an effect on the water lines in the ground, unless its a really deep trench.