Morning all...!

I've looked into this before, but been given different answers in the past. So I was hoping today to find out once and for all what's best.

I have a small loft above the one storey utility room at the end of my house. Four pipes rise from the boiler in the utility room, and then run through the loft into the rest of the house. They all run quite close together.

The loft is all boarded out, EXCEPT for where the pipes run - there is no boarding beneath them. See pictures for an illustration.






I'm going to box the pipes in so that they do not get knocked when putting things in/taking things out of the loft. My question is whether I should wrap the pipes up fully in insulation OR whether I should put insulation at the sides and on top of the pipes, but NOT beneath them (so that the warmer air from the room below will rise to them - as it does for water tanks in lofts).

Hope that makes sense.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Cheers

Max

Yep...over the top, not underneath.

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I Know it says I'm On-line, but I might have just left myself logged in, whilst I'm out....

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify and add - with the hot water only on, two of the pipes get hot. When the heating is on, all four pipes get hot.

I should also that due to the work we do, etc. the hot water/heating is not used as much as it is in the average home. We may go several days at a time without using either. So the purpose of the insulation is mainly to prevent freezing, although if it makes that the system more effective and energy efficient that is a bonus too!

Cheers.

Seems I'm getting mixed opinions on this one (I have posted elsewhere too). Some say yes, others no...

Perhaps I can do either then? Would be great to hear what other people think though so I can at least see which idea is most popular!!!!

Cheers

Max

Max, I'm with wine-O, plenty of insulation over n around my tanks but not below, stands to reason same physics for your pipes; have not had a frozen tank yet and guess you have not either!

I am not an expert but how does insulation stand up to hot pipes for duration, just curious to know for my own experience as well.

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Thanks for the replies chaps.

@nick200 - just so you know, I can use either standard loft insulation for the job, or so Rocksilk RS60 (cavity wall insulation slab..... - got some spare to use up).

From what I remember reading, there should be no issue at all. Someone said that type of material wouldn't catch fire til it reached over 1000 degrees C. So I'm guessing that not only will it be safe to use at water pipe/heating temps, but it should also stand up to it fine.

Other opinions though would be of great interest...

Cheers.

I guess there's a lot more water in a tank than there is in pipes....

Just out of curiosity (I know very little about such things), would central heating pipes always be full of water even when the heating is off?

Still got very mixed opinions on this one. However, I think I'm going to wrap them and that's for a couple of reasons:

1. They were originally wrapped and have been since the house was built in 1993, with no problems.

2. I have not thought of this reason until just now..... When the heating is on, all the pipes are hot anyway. So the heat from the room below rising to prevent freezing is totally irrelevant! When the heating has been off for a while, the room below is pretty damn cold anyhow (as it's a utility room at the end of the house with a back door and double window).

Thanks for all the help and time from you guys. It's hugely appreciated.

Max