hot water boiler pipe insulation

ddombro

Hi,
I just moved into a new home that has a hot water boiler system and none of the pipes are insulated so, i was wondering about taking care of that.  The boiler is from 2007, if that makes any difference.

I have some polyethylene foam pipe insulation just sitting around so I’d like to use that if possible but the temperature max range for it is up to 180 degrees.  I’m not sure if i would need something different or if I could at least use it on the return pipe where the heat will be decreased.  I’ve never had a boiler before, any help would be appreciated.  Thanks!

random12345

I've been wondering about this too. What do people think about Armacell?

EdTheHeaterMan

random12345 said:

I've been wondering about this too. What do people think about Armacell?

This one is for you:
When ever you insulate a pipe, the heat that that pipe gives off will no longer heat the space where that pipe is located. So think about it... Is that location comfortable? If an unoccupied place like a crawl space, will other pipes freeze if the heat is removed from that space? If there is heat in the basement from those pipes, then the floors above the pipes will be warmer. Any basement heat will not be lost to the outside at the same rate as the upper floor occupied rooms So there are the reasons not to insulate.

Reasons to insulate include, those pipes do hot heat a useful space. Those pipes are not in an area with other freezable stuff. The radiators connected to those pipes do not get enough heat to heat the room.
So your answer is a definite MAYBE!