frozen pipes splitting

[Jamie Banks]

Quick question: Why dont we insulate the pipes in our houses.

I know there are more combi out there now so no tanks etc but is there any reason why we dont lag/insulate our hot and cold pipes going to outputs. Is it because these fall in the envelope of the house and dont usually get that cold, is it because we could not see a leak quickly, is it cos these give off heat that rise through the floors etc.

Think we have been spoilt recently and not had severe winters but seem to be a little colder this year

Any help or advice appreciated

 

[PlumbBobBob]

laziness basically.

 

[Jamie Banks]

Is that all it is cos i'm thinking of doing my system sometime. What is the view of frost stats/pipe stats aswell

 

[justlead1]

Hi Jamie, Lagging pipe will deter frezing but over long sustained periods of cold it has little effect.

 

[kirkgas]

lagging domestic hot pipes assists with reducing heat loss, and if the pipe is used fairly frequently then should lead to a reduction in fuel used, lagging heating pipes can reduce heat transfer to other pipes but this lost heat can sometimes aadd to heat gain to a room via the ceiling below, in mid floors only, always best to lag under floor and in loft as heat loss just costs for fuel to keep at the right temp

 

[shorticus]

...and of course you can't lag through joists, not unless you want a wobbly house )

 

[mrlennie]

thank you for that useful post shorticus

 

[dontknowitall]

I attended a burst pipe this week. One pipe (not insulated) was frozen and when I cured that a moment or two later a different lagged/insulated pipe burst from ice expansion. As said earlier, insulation/lagging does not prevent freezing totally.

Many lofts have the insulation fitted wrongly. Essentially, the pipes should be below the insulation and the wires above it. If you have pipes above the insulation then the heat from the rooms below can't get through and therefore cannot help prevent freezing. Most times I see the insulation layer then the pipes and wires above it. 99.9% of the time this is just fine but in weeks like the last fortnight it creates problems.