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Steam piper not insulated under the crawlspace

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

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,159
    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.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • rikmonteiro
    rikmonteiro Member Posts: 20

    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
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,155
    No downside, use 1” fiberglass pipe insulation. I recently priced, Buy Insulation Products, had good pricing. 

    https://www.buyinsulationproductstore.com/pipe-insulation/
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,159
    Why did they use copper? Lazy.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • rcrit
    rcrit Member Posts: 74
    Speaking of insulation, the wall insulation is flamable.
    I'm just a homeowner that has a steam system, take my advice with a few grains of salt.
  • JUGHNE
    JUGHNE Member Posts: 11,042
    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
    rikmonteiro Member Posts: 20
    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?
    PC7060
  • ethicalpaul
    ethicalpaul Member Posts: 5,694
    Yes
    NJ Steam Homeowner. See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el