Will insulating my CH pipes make a difference?

[Milleniumaire]

After having a new UFH zone and LLH fitted to my CH system, I now have something that looks like this in the garage:

View media item 105686
I was thinking of insulating the pipes, however, I'm not sure exactly what the benefit will be. The garage has an excellent Hormann garage door, which actually gives a good seal where it meets the floor when closed, so I don't believe the garage could ever get below freezing, which might be the main reason for insulating the pipes.

Obviously, the other reason is to prevent heat loss, but from what I've read, I would need to use at least 30mm insulation for this to make a difference on 22mm pipes and there just isn't the space around some of the pipes for insulation this thick.

The third reason for insulating is aesthetics! I have seen some 6mm thick red and blue lagging which would potentially make the pipes looking more pleasing and help differentiate supply from return and hot and cold!

red lagging
blue lagging

I would appreciate your thoughts on the requirement to insulate the pipes.

 

[endecotp]

Obviously, the other reason is to prevent heat loss, but from what I've read, I would need to use at least 30mm insulation for this to make a difference on 22mm pipes

Nonsense. Every bit helps.

 

[muggles]

The main reason for insulating would be to prevent heat loss. It's also a requirement of Part L of the Building Regulations.

Never heard of needing 30mm to keep heat in. You can't even get 30mm thick in the standard get insulation, 25mm is the maximum and that's usually for extreme conditions. 19mm would be more usual in a garage. I can't see that 6mm stuff you've linked to being much use though.

The Spirocross is likely to be quite a big heat emitter. Insulation shells are available for those

 

[bernardgreen]

That insulation looks like it has to be slid onto the pipe before the pipe is installed. Probably not possible to retro fit it on installed pipework.

 

[Milleniumaire]

Nonsense. Every bit helps.

I beg to differ:

Critical Radius of Insulation



TBH, apart from not understanding the accent, this is way above my level of understanding, but from what I've read and understood, if the insulation is too thin OR too thick, the result is to effectively increases the surface area of the pipe and cause MORE heat loss. I do find this hard to grasp, as you said, surely some lagging is better than no lagging!

You would expect the insulation material to play a part in the ability of heat to leave the pipe, but obviously there will always be some heat loss, so when the insulation is thin that heat loss will be more than if the insulation was thicker.

In my case, I'm resigned to using the insulation for aesthetic reasons, but I don't want to use it if it actually makes heat loss worse as the product I'm looking at is only 6mm thick!

Not sure if there are any building regs specifying when, and what thickness insulation should be used for CH pipes.

 

[Milleniumaire]

That insulation looks like it has to be slid onto the pipe before the pipe is installed. Probably not possible to retro fit it on installed pipework.

Yes, I had noticed this, but I was planning to use a Stanley knife to cut it and use similarly coloured electrical tape to hold it in place!

 

[endecotp]

from what I've read and understood, if the insulation is too thin OR too thick, the result is to effectively increases the surface area of the pipe and cause MORE heat loss.

If you put a thin layer of bad insulation on a pipe, it may increase convection by more than it reduces conduction. This is not something that you need to worry about with any pipe insulation that you can actually buy. (Seriously, do you think an insulation manufacturer would sell a product that does the opposite of what it claims? That’s serious conspiracy-theory territory.)

I’m not aware of a mechanism by which too thick insulation can increase heat loss, though there is certainly a point at which it becomes uneconomic to add more.

The coloured lagging you’re looking at is rather thin and does not state its thermal conductivity, as far as I can see. Use something more conventional, like you seem to have on the other pipes in your photo.