How To Insulate Hot Water Heater Pipes

Electrical hot water is expensive. Nosotros've installed low menstruum shower heads. Nosotros have a h2o efficient clothes washer. Merely later that we're virtually at the terminate of what we can do to save water heating free energy through conservation. A quick, uncareful approximate at our hot water consumption is near 50 gallons per twenty-four hour period: 10 gallons each for three showers, 10 gallons every other day for the dishwasher, 10 gallons at the kitchen sink, a few gallons at the bathroom sink and a few gallons for laundry.

Hither comes the math… Raising that much water lxx degrees (from 50 degrees at the inlet to 120 degrees in the tank) takes viii.2 kWh/mean solar day. We pay 14.5 cents per kWh, so over the course of a month that'southward $36. After we installed our heat pump h2o heater we more than cut that in half, but that's a story for another mail service.

It's common that folks trying to relieve free energy on their water heating volition ask whether insulating the hot h2o pipes is a proficient idea. Losing heat through the pipes is similar losing heat out of the business firm, right? So keeping the heat in the pipes will apply less h2o heating fuel, right? My respond is "No" and here'southward why.

Hot h2o is stored in a tank. The tank is insulated, and unless you have a very old water heater, it's probably insulated pretty well. Electric water heaters in particular tin can take great tank insulation. If your tank is enormous, has a plastic crush and is domed on superlative you've got good insulation. Gas water heaters tend to not have such skilful insulation. I exercise think it'southward a good thought to insulate any water heater tank that came with fiberglass insulation. Do a expert chore detailing the tank wrap, and insulate the top of the tank besides. With gas water heaters, adding tank insulation must exist done advisedly because there's a burn inside the tank and y'all have to be careful not to cake the combustion air intake or get too close to the flue pipe, which is hot and can catch your tank wrap on burn down. I of Nik's friends was nearly killed past carbon monoxide poisoning when the water heater tank insulation defenseless fire backside the wrap and smoldered just plenty to brand carbon monoxide but not enough to trigger the fume detector. Insulate a gas tank knowledgeably and carefully or not at all.

On the other hand, hot water is not stored in the pipes. Hot water goes in the pipes, and the hot water that gets left behind cools off eventually, only no fuel is burned keeping that h2o hot. Keeping the h2o in the pipes hot all the time would be squeamish. That way there would exist hot water at the tap all the time. Simply don't confuse instant hot water with energy conservation. In fact, the devices that ensure hot water at the tap are energy porkers. In hotels where you tin can have a shower hundreds of feet from the water heater, and in big houses where people only feel entitled to hot h2o at a moments notice, hot water is continuously circulated out of the tank through a pipage loop that goes on a tour of the sinks and showers. That uses pumping free energy, and continuously refreshing the hot water in the pipes means continuous oestrus loss out of the pipes, which causes the water heater to utilize a lot of fuel keeping itself and the water in the pipes hot. In this case, aye it is a very practiced idea to insulate the pipes. But insulation is only helpful so long as the hot water in the pipes keeps getting refreshed, and likewise, very few people need instant hot water and so badly they'd do this kind of boneheaded system in their house.

Which brings us to pipe insulation and what information technology can and can't exercise. Insulation does non make estrus. And insulation does not proceed something hot (or cold). Insulation SLOWS rut transfer. Given enough time, the stuff on ane side of the insulation (water) will become the same temperature as the stuff on the other side (the air in your basement), if there is no boosted input of free energy. And there's the rub: water in pipes is not heated; but the water in the tank is heated. Insulating something merely makes sense if y'all're going to actively keep information technology at a different temperature from the stuff around information technology. And then insulate the tank, and read on for ways to minimize estrus loss through the pipes (none of which involves insulating the pipes.)

tap on cold side

Keep the tap turned to the cold side all the fourth dimension.

When there is a short water draw hot water is not drawn out of the water heater.

When there is a short h2o describe hot water is not drawn out of the water heater.

Most water draws are too short for the hot water to arrive at the sink. Don't put hot water in the pipe for no reason.

Most water draws are besides brusk for the hot h2o to arrive at the sink. Don't put hot water in the pipe for no reason.

Losing heat out of the pipes is a bummer. It's just wasteful and bothers me as a conservationist. Hither'southward the primary matter I practise to prevent hot water from sitting in the pipes and losing estrus to the basement: I keep the hot h2o out of the piping. In authenticity, almost of the h2o draws in the home are brusk: a quick hand wash, wetting a cloth, rinsing the crumbs off the cutting board, etc. In these cases no one, certainly not I, leaves the tap on long enough for hot water to get to the tap. If we used the hot water recently so the h2o in the piping is all the same hot, maybe nosotros're glad to have hot water for these piddling squirts. But usually we're ok with cool h2o. If the tap is on the hot side when we draw a niggling fleck of water a slug of hot h2o goes in the piping even though we didn't employ hot water. An hour later, when we employ another little flake of hot water, that water has cooled off but we don't notice considering nosotros only run the water for a couple of seconds and we weren't really expecting the hot h2o to get to the tap anyway. Another slug of hot water gets introduced into the pipe. Having insulation on the pipes would not change this 1 bit. The water in the pipe will cool off whether or not it's insulated, and usually we don't use the hot water soon enough to prevent this. The solution: keep the taps turned over to the cold side. I go along all the taps in the firm on the cold side unless I'm at the sink for a long time doing something that needs hot h2o, similar washing dishes or taking a shower. I don't look for the hot water to become to the tap. When I need hot h2o, I utilize it; when I don't need hot h2o I don't unintentionally fill the pipage with hot h2o.

The amount of hot water that is left behind in the piping when y'all apply hot water is a function of how big the pipe is and how far it is from the water heater to the tap. In new construction there are codes that limit how big the piping can be. I think this is really for water conservation (since a lot of water just goes down the bleed while you're waiting for the hot water to get in) rather than energy conservation, but it's proficient for both. In addition to correctly sizing the pipe, the pipe layout can exist configured for low water volume betwixt the tank and the tap. And finally, when designing a business firm the bathrooms and kitchen can be located back-to-back and on top of one another, with the water tank immediately beneath, thus keeping all hot water pipes curt. If yous should e'er take to supercede whatsoever of your hot h2o pipes, consider including 1 of these strategies for saving water and water-heating energy. Since a water heater is replaced many times in the life of a business firm, that'due south a cracking time to incorporate efficiency upgrades.

And to wrap it all up, dorsum to the piping insulation… There is i part of the hot h2o pipes that should always be insulated. Hot h2o in the tank oftentimes floats into the pipes when hot h2o isn't existence used. This is a effect of poor design in American h2o heaters. With the pipes attached to the acme of the tank, hot water in the tank moves up into the pipes by thermosiphon. Some tanks have a doodad called a rut trap that prevents this, but some tanks don't and anyhow I think the heat traps might not always work. Thermosiphoning is a pretty weak force and generally doesn't move hot water past the first elbow in the pipage. Insulate the pipe ON BOTH THE HOT AND Cold SIDE within a couple of feet of the tank. Particular the pipage insulation carefully around fittings and elbows; tape the insulation in identify if information technology isn't the kind that has adhesive on the meeting edges. Be careful with gas water heaters: sometimes the pipes are right side by side to the flue pipe and whatever insulation would be exposed to extremely high temperatures (don't insulate in this state of affairs). Remember, this is to prevent your water heater from wasting free energy, non to give you lot instant hot water at the tap. If that's what yous desire, look for a hereafter post on demand recirculators.

If you lot really want to insulate your pipes, go for it. But do it knowing that it won't forestall frozen pipes and information technology won't save energy.