What type of pipe insulation should be used on the near boiler piping?

Tradecraft

<span style="font-size:12pt">What type of pipe insulation should be used on the near boiler piping, including the header, steam supplies and mains?</span>

<span style="font-size:12pt">How thick should it be?</span>

BobC

Pipe insulation.

A minimum of 1" fiberglass pipe insulation should be used, more is better but expensive. All fittings should be insulated also.



You can get it at a distributor or order it online.



Bob

crash2009

Insulation

Glass fibre pipe wrap is used for the pipes and pvc with glass fibre inserts are used for the elbows and T's.  The names of 2 manufacturers are Fiberglass and John Mansfield.  For the pvc Covers Zeston and Speedline

http://www.specjm.com/commercial/pipe/pipetankinsulation.asp

http://www.speedlinepvc.com/smoke-safe-pvc

http://www.specjm.com/products/pvcpipeaccessories/zeston2000.asp

The most important place to insulate is the mains.  My basement used to be 120 F.  Now its a comfortable 70 F, the same as the rest of the house.  Also it makes the boiler quiet and the steam work better.  I dont even know when its running.

I did my near boiler with 1".  The next time I would use 2".  It doesn't matter what it looks like but the pvc covers really give the job a finished look.  Here's a couple shots of how mine turned out.

gerry gill

these are pictures of our latest steam

that the owner asked us to insulate..the fiberglass is 1'' to eventually mate up with the old asbestos..the fittings are covered with high temperature insulators cement..the whole thing is wrapped in scrim, (we use cheescloth), and then all is coated with childers mastic.

TomM

white on red

nice, looks trippy with the white pipes against the red walls.  or like an industrial newlywed suite or something.

Tradecraft

Thank you for the advice.

We'll follow your recommendations.  Thanks again.

Engr

Use Economical Insulation Thickness

The insulation in our 12 unit condo was just installed in a project that my wife and I managed (we're both Engineers).  The software tool 3E Plus is very helpful in determining the best thickness to use for the best cost of install.

The short answer of how much insulation to put on is: the most you can.  However, the more you put on, the more it will cost: thicker is $$$, thinner is $.

The software lets you put all of your project info in (length, diameters, labor cost, fuel cost, expected lifetime of installation, etc) and comes out with the best bang for the buck. It's sponsored by our wonderful DOE, so it's free.

http://www.pipeinsulation.org/pages_v4/details.html