Insulation

saikosis

Hi. I'm trying to get my one-pipe system up to a respectable level of functionality:

<a href="http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/147374/Help-with-Calculating-EDR">http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/147374/Help-with-Calculating-EDR</a>

<a href="http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/147386/Whats-Wrong-With-These-Pictures">http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/147386/Whats-Wrong-With-These-Pictures</a>



So, today, feeling motivated and somehwat knowledgeable, I searched around and found two plumbing supply shops in my area. I called one up: "Hey, you got 1 inch fiberglass insulation for steam pipes?" "Nope." "Darn."



Next: "Hey, you got 1 inch fiberglass insulation for steam pipes?" "Yup." "Cool, be right there."



I get there, ask for 12 sections of insulation for 2 inch pipe. (I figure I'll start with the easy pipes before I start insulating the small ones, the elbows, etc.) He comes back with insulation that's 1/2 inch thick. I said, "It's not 1 inch thick?" He says, "Nope, that's all we got." In a moment of self-doubt, I thought maybe when people say "1 inch thick" they mean "1/2 inch on one side + 1/2 inch on the other = 1 inch total." So, I buy them, but I don't feel good about it. I get to the parking lot, do some quick searching on here and convince myself that what I got is not what people mean when they say 1 inch insulation. So I go right back in and return it. I ask if they can order 1 inch. They say they've never heard of it, wouldn't know where to buy it, and that they've been selling this stuff for years and no one has complained. Hm. That kind of type sounds a lot like the knucklehead contractors that Dan talks about in his books. So who's the knucklehead: him or me?



Next, I went to the local home center and asked for pipe insulation. They showed me basically the same stuff that the plumbing supply place sold me, but the plumbing place charged me 30% more! I'm sure glad I returned it! This really surprised me. I know the big box home stores crush everyone with volume, but I thought I'd get a better deal at a place that specializes in this stuff. I realize I'm getting the homeowner price and not the contractor price, but, come on, 30% is a big difference! Am I naive?



So by now I'm frustrated and go back home. I search online for "1 inch thick fiberglass pipe insulation" and find a bunch of places that sell it for even cheaper than the home center even with shipping charges. Great!



Is 1 inch still the recommendation for steam pipes? I think my biggest pipes are 2 inch internal diameter, although I haven't measured everything yet so there may be some bigger ones in the system. 1 1/2 inch is 75% more expensive that 1 inch and 2 inch is 155% more expensive. Yikes. What do the pros think?

Rod

Steam Pipe Insulation

Hi- Take a look at this great thread on insulation done by "Crash", who is one of the Wall members.   http://www.heatinghelp.com/forum-thread/137178/Insulation



1 inch insulation is the minimum and also best size from the initial cost standpoint. (The one inch is measured from the inside to the outside of the insualtion)

Insulation prices vary a lot so be sure to shop around.

Here's a supplier a lot of people on the Wall use.

http://www.buyinsulationproductstore.com/servlet/StoreFront

- Rod

fixitguy

Fittings,

We always use the thickest that we can get. You cant over insulate. For the ells & tees, we find the Zeston covers & Z tacks to be a pain, so we have started to use 4" PVC vent fittings that we carefully split on the table saw packed with fibreglass and held together with heavy zip ties.

saikosis

Thanks

Thanks for the links. buyinsulationproductstore.com is the site I found earlier. Their prices seem pretty good and I'm glad to hear that people here use them.



I'm a little confused about insulating the elbows and tees. I thought PVC would melt on a hot steam pipe. What am I missing?



Is there ever a reason not to insulate? My uninsulated pipes are heating my unused basement, so that's a waste, but isn't some of that heat keeping my floors warm? If I insulate, will I see my fuel bills drop but then get complaints from my wife about cold floors? I suppose slippers are much cheaper than fuel...

fixitguy

PVC good stuff

Nope, PVC will not melt. We use vent fittings. Thinner than Schedule 40 and the ells are tighter and the tees are tees not tee wys. As for insulation, we want the steam to condense in the radiators, not the pipes. We usually insulate the main returns all the way to the vents