Steam piper not insulated under the crawlspace

rikmonteiro

Hello,

I have a kitchen, laundry and mudroom addition with a crawl space under it. The crawlspace has steam pipes for 3 radiators running through it. Those steam pipes are not insulated at all. All the pipes are cast iron, but in the
one of the pipes is converted to copper.


Those radiators are notoriously heating slower than others in the house.
Would it make sense to insulate these pipes under the crawlspace ?
What would be some potential downsides to this?


Cast Iron pipe with no insulation



Cooper pipe

Jamie Hall

Would it make sense? Good heavens yes. It will help those poor radiators a lot! And there are no downsides at all. Have at it.

rikmonteiro

Jamie Hall said:

Would it make sense? Good heavens yes. It will help those poor radiators a lot! And there are no downsides at all. Have at it.

Thanks... Is there any reason why they put cooper in one pipe? Also, Is the insulation for cooper pipe the same?

PC7060

No downside, use 1” fiberglass pipe insulation. I recently priced, Buy Insulation Products, had good pricing. 

https://www.buyinsulationproductstore.com/pipe-insulation/

Jamie Hall

Why did they use copper? Lazy.

rcrit

Speaking of insulation, the wall insulation is flamable.

JUGHNE

Insulation for copper pipe is slightly smaller (inside diameter) than the same size of iron.

Go to the web site shown above for insulation, they have pretty good guidelines.
Good product price but high freight prices.

rikmonteiro

JUGHNE said:

Insulation for copper pipe is slightly smaller (inside diameter) than the same size of iron.

Go to the web site shown above for insulation, they have pretty good guidelines.
Good product price but high freight prices.

I have seen that size is different.

Just to confirm, even for copper, fiberglass pipe insulation is the recommendation, right?

ethicalpaul

Yes