Black Iron Piping Heat Loss?

[NewBoiler]

My new indoor boiler is located some 50 feet away from my oil boiler and the system zone valves. So the hot water must travel through 50 feet of 1 1/4" black iron pipe before it gets to be used in the system. My question is whether i should try to insulate (foam insulation) this 50 feet of pipe so that I do not lose too much heat before it gets used in the system? Does 1 1/4" black iron pipe have a high heat loss? The piping is all indoors and would never be lower than 20 degress celsius room temperature.

 

[Pat53]

the short answer is that if the ambient air is colder than the water in the pipe, it will lose heat to the colder air. the colder the air relative to the water in the pipe, the more the heat loss.

Pat

 

[leaddog]

If the heat loss is where you need it not a problem but 50ftx2 is alot of area and wrapping or buying foam would allow you to put those btu's where you want them. They make fiberglass and foam wrap just for that purpose. If you know any commercial plumbers you might be able to get some used stuff they have taken off.
leaddog

 

[nate379]

Well put it this way, now this is with copper, but still..

My nat gas boiler for the slab heat is in my garage. Last winter I was able to keep the garage at at least 55* and often most closer to 80* (just depending on how often the boiler ran)... this without turning on the heat in the garage, just from the piping that wasn't insulated.

I insulated everything this year and I had to turn the garage heat on already! That is fine because before I was wasting heat that needed to go in the house and instead warming the garage to temps I didn't want. 55-60 is plenty warm enough for in there.

Oh, I have maybe 50 feet of piping if you count all the bends, elbows, etc.

Foam for the size you need is like $5 a stick, so you are looking at $40-50 worth of materials.

 

[4acrefarm]

I use foam insulation on cooler pipes ( under170*). Right off the boiler I use fiberglass then I wrap with aluminum foil ( real foil not the stuff with the plastic) , then another layer of fiberglass. The foam will melt if you get it to hot. I also go over the foam with a layer of foil and fiberglass. This may be eccessive but thats what I do.

 

[nate379]

True, no concern with my boiler since the max temp is 180*

 

[btuser]

Insulate the pipes AT LEAST for the first 15' or so.

 

[heating8]

if you're going to insulate DON'T use foam for hot water, use fiberglass. After a few years, the foam will harden and lose a lot of it's insulating properties (unless you have some real special $$ stuff).

 

[nate379]

I'm not sure where that info comes from but I have pulled foam insulation off 20-30 yr old installs of water heaters and boilers and never noticied the foam was coming apart.

For the wood fired setups I do agree foam won't handle the heat. You need to treat those more like a steam system.