insulating heating lines

jp_2

thats a good idea

Brain Ross

insulating heating pipes

here's a good one,

my local plumbing inspector would like to see 1 inch of pipe insulation around any heating line in a unconditioned area, great if you can find it, most time i've got to special order it. I understand it's energy lost and with high fuel prices and being pc green it makes sense.

however, my local code dictates that any heating lines in the "thermal envelope" does not need to be insulated. sounds too good to be true although thats the way we've done it for years.

after doing some calculations, how many btu's i was losing from exposed heating lines (in a conditioned space), i saw that i was losing almost as many btu's getting to the heat emitters than the emitters were using. in addition, lets say you have heating lines, 2 or more loops passing in a soffit or behind a kitchen cabinet, wouldn't that area act like some sort of radiant heating.

so, is it foolish to say that we should insulate those lines to the heat emitters, even if it's in some small amount.

let me know.