What is everyone using inside their house and garage for insulating the pex? I have about 135ft of 1 1/8 pex exposed in my house and around 20ft in my garage(just got the house this year) Foam? armacell?
Indoor boiler pipe insulation
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I'm also curious what is best to use. Im getting ready to run pex for my panel rads and am trying to decide if I should insulate and if so with what.
Where is the pipe exactly? I wouldn't worry about insulating the pipe inside the house if it is in an area that is being heated. Heat loss from those pipes will not be "lost".
As for your garage I've heard of lots of people using "pool noodles" to insulate piping for cheap. I suppose it would depend on colors available. I'm not one to decorate my garage with neon green pool noddles.
As for your garage I've heard of lots of people using "pool noodles" to insulate piping for cheap. I suppose it would depend on colors available. I'm not one to decorate my garage with neon green pool noddles.
Mine is in an unconditioned crawl space. I may be able to get some fiberglass with the wrap on it for free, but not sure yet.
There is a closed cell foam tube much like pool noodles at places like Menards and Lowes and etc that usually come in bags of 4-6 in 4' lengths and in 3/8" to 1/2" thicknesses and various configurations to accomodate up to 1 1/4" steel pipe or equivalent what ever type of pipe. Not usually very expensive. I used that in my garage when the boiler was there and even usd it to insulate my undergroound pex. The 1/2" thick foam walls insulated quite well. I had about .5 deg f. loss amd no melt line in a 50' foot run which I did not think was bad for a diy'er. I was on a limited budget and pressed for time at the time of the install. The closed cell foam will beat fiberglass and is very easy to use. Some versions are self sealing with a pull off strip to close the foam tube after the pex is inserted and some are left unsealed to keep the duct tape industry solvent. :lol:
I found the the bigger size I needed at a plumbing supply house that will see to an average Joe. Price similar to Menards, HD and it fit like a glove.
stee6043 said:
We only use the basment for storage and it has its own zone, the heat never kicks on down there and it always stays 70. So even know the heat is not being lost it still seems like a waste since if I could control it I would keep it 60. I picked up some armaflex that was on sale so I will try that.
woodsmaster said:
That is how I did mine. No data yet, but it seemed to be the right thing to do!
Good luck,
Bill
Since our boiler is in an outbuilding I consider lost energy there wasted. I used the black foam "noodles" from a plumbing supply house on all pipe insulation. Never occured to me to use pool noodles. I have seen our black foam tubes melt or shrink on the pipes close to the boiler exit. Not a big deal, but it appears that the plumbing supply black foam must melt close to 190-200F. I covered most of the boiler room piping but not bulky items like the air separator or ball valves. Best I can tell I was losing a degree or two before the water exited the boiler room. I did insulate some of our pex lines in our root cellar because I don't think the lost radiant energy in the root cellar is a net energy gain to the living space above. My approach was to focus on the HX where energy is dumped from the whole system as much as possible. For me that means preserving as much energy as possible from boiler exit to return, simple physics, conservation of energy.
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