insulating steam mains in finished basement

gwenb

I have one pipe steam in an old 1880 house. The basement is finished. Should I still insulate the main steam pipes? I guess they basically supply the only heat to the basement.

Fred

Insulating them would certainly help get steam to the upper floors of the house a bit faster. Uninsulated pipe will cause steam to condense a lot more and take longer to get to the radiators. if the boiler is oversized, it might be a good thing to let those Mains heat the basement. Do you know what the total EDR of the radiators are and the Sq. Ft. of steam the boiler is rated at?

KC_Jones

Not sure what your budget is, but if you are worried about heating a basement you could insulate the mains and then get a hot water zone installed off of your existing steam boiler. It would cost some money. You need someone that knows exactly what they are doing to evaluate if it would work in your situation and to design and install it properly. As Fred said it will speed up steam to the upper floors, but there are a lot of factors at work here.

gwenb

No, I haven't figured out the numbers, but I'll try to do that sometime soon.
I am generally satisfied with how the rest of the house heats, and the basement is none too warm, so perhaps I'm better off focusing on insulating the basement better and plugging those drafts. I'm not using it enough to justify a hot water zone.

KC_Jones

If you don't use it much I would say insulate then....especially if it isn't that warm down there anyway. It's just costing you money.