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.