Where to find pipe insulation? Winter's a comming.

RickeyM

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Our home has a gravity fed hot water heating system. Our basement half finished, half unfinished and the unfinished area is where the furnace is. Last year I sealed off the door leading outside with fiberglass batting. The unfinished portion was warmer than ever and the furnace ran a lot less. I figured that keeping the water in the pipes warmer was keeping the house warmer. This year I'd like to take it further and insulate the piping leading to the radiators. I've seen the insulation they well at Home Depot but I'd like to have something much thicker. When you live in an older house every little bit helps to stretch that energy dollar ;)
 
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I would think that Home depot,Lowes, type stores would have that type of insulated wrap for your plumbing needs.
 
My local True Value hardware store has an excellent selection.

Out in the Midwest, Menards is my go to store for about everything and the Ace hardware store has everything else.
 
Both my solar HW and hydronic boiler systems use fiberglass insulation on the pipes (normal pipe insulation may not withstand the 180 deg temps in the in-floor lines), not for cold proofing, but energy conservation.
Looks to be about 4" outside diameter 'tubes'. No idea where to buy it, but has to be fairly common?
 
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I got mine at ACE Hardware . Simple to cut and when done , pull the yellow tape and stick together .
 
Both my solar HW and hydronic boiler systems use fiberglass insulation on the pipes (normal pipe insulation may not withstand the 180 deg temps in the in-floor lines), not for cold proofing, but energy conservation.
Looks to be about 4" outside diameter 'tubes'. No idea where to buy it, but has to be fairly common?

That really thick stuff is what I'm looking for. If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing :thumbsup:
 
Huh. Just realized, this fiberglass stuff is also what is used outdoors at the solar panels as well.
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I got mine at ACE Hardware. Simple to cut and when done , pull the yellow tape and stick together .

I went online and found some tubing like this. Now I'll check ACE Hardware to see if I can source it locally. The fiberglass insulation just doesn't have the R value I want. I think it'll be sweet to get some of that lost heat up to the radiators.
 
I sourced some insulation and installed it on the boiler output and input pipes in the unheated area of the basement. The house seems to heat up faster in the mornings and the radiators are holding heat longer. Mission accomplished :thumbsup:
 
If the foam tubing needs help, you can always wrap that with the universal glass pipe wrap kits sold at most hardware stores.

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** Hope Depot does stock the stiffer glass wrap - R value for that ls 3 ...
 
If the foam tubing needs help, you can always wrap that with the universal glass pipe wrap kits sold at most hardware stores.

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** Hope Depot does stock the stiffer glass wrap - R value for that ls 3 ...

That would be ideal for those "T" fittings and 45* & 90* elbows.
 
Yup - and you can wrap it as thick as you like.

Another option is metalized bubble wrap. R value is 1, but you can use multiple layers. I lined some old fiberboard cold air ducts with that here years ago and it's holding up nicely ...

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Make sure it's got foil on both sides, and join all the seams with metal duct tape.
 
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