uninsulated steam pipe

john p_2

hi guys, putting some wireless equip. into a room, essentially a closet thats about 12' X 12' with 10' ceiling. There are provisions for ac to cool the room but we think they may have missed the uncovered pipe that is a 4" steam pipe about 12' long, used for heating this complex. My questions are, will insulating it stop all of the heat that it emits to the space now and what thickness would be best?

Jamie Hall

Insulating

won't stop all the heat -- that's impossible -- but it will certainly reduce the amount of heat you need to deal with considerably.  A 4" steam pipe, 12 feet long, is going to dump a remarkable amount of heat, uninsulated -- somewhere around 3K BTU.  I would suggest a minimum of 1" fiberglass or equivalent; half inch really doesn't do much. 

RJ_4

insulation

I would insulate the pipe with 2 inch fiberglass and than build a small insulated chase aruond the pipe

Jamie Hall

Why not?

No harm to more insulation... just to give a very very rough idea, though -- 1" should get the heat gain from the pipe down to about 400 BTU; 2" would cut that in half.  If even that is a problem, a chase -- insulated or not -- vented to somewhere else could drop it to zero in your space, depending on the temperature of the air going through the chase.