Tony’s building tips: Insulating central heating pipes.

Talking about insulation of central heating pipes…

You’ve specified a band A condensing boiler, you know how to set it up, the radiators are the right size and you think you can now relax and let the plumber install it all, right?

Actually no! There is one more area you must pay attention to or the heat you have very efficiently produced will ‘leak’ out before it gets to where you want it.

I would strongly recommend all central heating pipes are insulated wherever it is possible. It does not matter what the pipes are made of, copper or plastic will ‘leak’ heat at about the same rate.
The same is true for pipes carrying hot water. These should all be insulated. This is especially important for long pipe runs and pumped hot water loops (though I am not a fan of these, there are better ways of delivering hot water efficiently to point of use).

There is only one exception; the boiler bypass loop needs to be able to get rid of heat (that is its purpose) and so should not be insulated.

Where hot and cold water pipes run close together and where a cold pipe runs through the space where the boiler or hot water tank are situated, then the cold pipe should also be insulated.

Clearly, anything in the loft or other space exposed to freezing temperatures should be insulated against freezing.

This must all be done when the system is being installed – it is too late when the floors are back down!

Talking about insulation, don’t forget cork is a great building insulator!