Insulating pipes in basement

[drewmo]

We recently moved into a rental house and noticed that none of the pipes are insulated. I haven't calculated the total length of the exposed pipes, but would guess somewhere in the 150-feet range. We have an oil furnace for both the hot water and baseboard heat. It's obviously not an issue now, but I'm wondering if it's worth the investment to insulate the pipes with foam before heating season starts. I don't have a record of oil consumption from previous tenants, but I'm wondering where the break even point with foam insulation would be. We know we'll be in this house for one year, but possibly longer. A colleague says not to bother because of the natural convection of hot air rising and he suggests never to insulate. I'm not so sure if I agree, it just seems to me we'd be heating a lot of unused space. The benefit of not insulating is being assured that the basement (mostly below ground except for the width of about two garage doors) is warm enough to keep the pipes from freezing. The rest of the house seems to be well insulated, and unfortunately this rental does not come with a wood or pellet stove.

 

[firefighterjake]

1,800 square foot Cape in Central Maine . . . cinder block walls for the crawl space/basement with no insulation . . . hot water baseboard heat . . . I insulated the pipes with the foam wrap . . . it's cheap . . . and I figured it can't hurt things . . . the way I figure it I would rather keep the heat in the pipes and disperse in the radiators with their fins vs. allowing the heat to disperse in the cooler basement that it passes through . . . there is still plenty of residual heat from both the Earth and what little heat moves through the pipes when the oil boiler comes on occasionally or my domestic hot water to keep the pipes from freezing.

 

[velvetfoot]

I don't think you should do anything to the house without your landlord's approval.

 

[firefighterjake]

I don't think you should do anything to the house without your landlord's approval.

Although most landlords I suspect would be OK with you putting on the foam wraps since they go on and off easy enough.

 

[Don2222]

Hello

I like the white Fiberglass insulation better. Not the 1/2" thick wall R2 stuff at Home Depot but the 1" thick wall R4 stuff at the plumbing supply house that you can actually buy cheaper if you ask. also Z-Tape is great for taping the seams. Works much better than R2 foam. Do it once and Do it right!

Here is more info:
http://www.leaningpinesoftware.com/hot_water_pipes.shtml

 

[velvetfoot]

For the foam I've been using contact cement.