Feb 20 2007
Energy conservation: Insulating steam pipes
We’ve got a grumpy old oil furnace that heats up the steam radiators throughout our house. The furnace is in decent condition, but it is showing its age because of years of exposure to basement dampness during the spring and fall seasons.
The pipes are also old, but they are in great shape. And through the last two years, a number of tradesmen coming through our home for one project or another have mentioned insulating the steam pipes. Not so much to protect them from a damp basement, but to save oil and energy when the furnace kicks in.
What we’ve learned is that steam, when traveling through cold and exposed pipes, is harder to keep hot and the furnace has to use more oil to keep it hot for the trip through to the radiators. But when they’re insulated, less energy is needed to keep the steam hot as it moves through the pipes and any returning steam or water that comes back to the furnace through the return pipes is also relatively warm, and thus, does not need to be reheated as much when its back in the furnace.
This all boils down (pun intended) to using less oil to make less steam for less time. While we will end up dropping about $200 to $300 on the insulation, we figured that with the rising costs of oil, we’ll make this money back inside of 2 years.
In the last week, despite the cold weather, we’ve significantly slowed the amount of oil that is being burned.
And it has taken about that long to get the tiny bits of fiberglass out of the skin on my hands and forearms. Something the tradesmen and online pipe insulation tutorials neglected to mention.
5 responses so far
I had considered doing the same thing over here, but my father
cautioned against it, because, believe it or not they do provide a
bit of heat to the basement. You don’t want it to get too cold down
there that it freezes your water pipes.
Not that it would, but something to consider. Think of why it was
never done before!
Good point! Someone mentioned that once, but I suspect–and hope–the odds are pretty slim.
But right now, our basement is often warmer than the upstairs –that’s a lot of wasted heat! And as for why it was never done before, as lovely as the previous owners were, they didn’t do a lot to the basement except ignore it. (You’ve seen how wet it gets down there.)
Paul,
When I built, which we’re going to do again in MA, we used forced hot water and gas. On the unit, we installed a “primary” that would minimize energy usage across the heating loops. In other words, when I turned on the shower, the rest of house stopped circulating and pumped out just ambient heat. Then when I am done showering, it call kicks back on. I can look up the name of the little copper toy… it’s not necessary and $500 bucks, but whatever I can do to promote Momma Natura, I will do.
Be green!
Judah
Additionally, I suspect that the heat generated from the furnace alone would be enough to keep the basement relatively warm. That bad boy does get hot!
Judah, an interesting tool. I’m not sure it would work on a steam heat system, but I’d love to hear more about it.