What You Need To Know Before Insulating Copper Pipes

Copper piping is now the most common material for home plumbing and air conditioning, because of its resistance to corrosion. Copper can run both hot and cold freshwater, and hot and cold salt waters without pitting, which has made it the perfect replacement for galvanized and brass piping. But unfortunately, copper is also a great conductor of heat.

Copper is the second best, naturally occurring metal heat conductor, because it has so many electrons to pass heat energy from a hot area to a cool area. Although great for some things, it's not so nice for hot water pipes on a cold day. Without the proper insulation, a lot of heat energy is lost as the water travels through the copper piping.

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Insulating copper piping will help the water in your home to heat up faster, stay hotter longer, and can reduce energy bills by quite a bit. You also may even be able to get hotter water through your tap then you did before, if only by a few degrees.

Pipe insulation comes in four basic types. The spiral-wrap fiberglass insulation is the cheapest of the pipe insulation, and has the lowest insulation value on your pipes. Although any insulation is better than none, this is a cheap, difficult to install version that is usually not even worth the price.

Another, better type is foam tubing. Foam tubing comes in two distinct varies, regular and self-sealing. The regular foam tubing is a squishy, round insulation with a slit down the length for easy installation, while the other has a stick strip along the slit for easy sealing of the insulation. Foam tubing comes in two thicknesses as well; 3/8 inch and 5/8 inch. The thicker the foam tubing, the better insulated your pipes will be.

Fiberglass shell pipe covers are another type of insulation. These hard tubes are fiberglass with a foil lining the inside. The foil reflects the heat back into the pipe, instead of allowing the heat to escape into the cooler air. To install, you just open the pipe on its hinge, and close it around the pipe, sealing it closed with its own, built in glue strip along the slit edge.

And the best sort of insulation for your pipes is regular fiberglass insulation. This insulation is used primarily in attics to keep the hot or cold air out of your home, and the same principal applies to piping. Fiberglass has a very high insulation value, and, if installed properly around all of the copper pipes in your home, can save quite a bit of money on your monthly heating and cooling bills.

What You Need To Know Before Insulating Copper Pipes

For more information on copper repiping, read more about copper repiping to have all your questions answered.

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