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What is safe to plant over a ground source heat loop?
Black Orchid
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in Talkback
Having been looking forward to creating a garden from scratch after 18 months of building in a very rural location, it has been suggested that I cant' plant anything over the ground source heating pipework that is buried a metre and a half under the majority of our garden. I had expected not to be able to plant trees over the pipework, but not that I wouldn't be able to plant anything. Does anyone else have any experience of this that they would be willing to share please?
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I can't help you directly BOrchid, but were you given a thorough explanation for not planting if the pipes are that far below ground, or was it just a general 'you can't plant there' type of statement? It seems overly cautious since the roots of most plants and shrubs don't go anywhere near that.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
As a technical person, I think that makes a lot of sense pansyface.
I did a bit of googling and came up with this though (from a supplier of such systems) which indicates anything can be planted:
www.alternativeheat.co.uk/downloads/Introduction_to_heat_pumps.pdf
So read the small print; If the guarantee mentions no planting above the loop then stick to lawn, otherwise I wouldn't worry too much.
That does make sense pansyface, but I thought the heat came from the ground itself , lower down, rather than heat from the sun permeating. Bob's google info would seem to support that. Perhaps the OP could ask the suppliers for a bit of clarification - in writing, just in case there's an issue later.
You know what these companies are like
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...