Saturday, October 08, 2011
THE cruel winter of last year proved a huge shock to many of us. Losing our water supply, rocketing heating bills, and dealing with frozen pipe-work — it really was a slap in the face.
Now is the time to get the waterworks inside your home properly insulated to ward off icing up and to retain the increasingly expensive energy devoted to feeding a wet heating system. These inexpensive projects are something younger DIY warriors can gift (in a couple of hours of labour at least) to older or physically challenged family members, neighbours and friends.
Payback for a full pipe work insulation including the immersion tank can be less than one year. Remember if you do go away, keep the house slightly heated (even 12ºC) to prevent the system freezing in severe weather. Before you start even looking at your pipes, find out exactly where your stop-cock is located and to make sure it’s not jammed.
Immersion tank: Unless your tank has come pre-insulated from the factory, choose a jacket 80mm-100mm thick. Standard sizes are 900mm x 450mm and 1050mm x 450mm (from €15). Having allowed the tank to cool use a soft tape to measure it vertically and around the widest section of the dome. There’s a bit of tailoring to be done as the jacket will be in segments that are belted to the tank and pulled up at the top for a snug fit. Don’t pull the insulation completely flat as it needs to be fluffed to catch air pockets. Overlap the segments, and lay them back in place if you put your hand on the tank to check its temperature. If an electric immersion heater is fitted, ensure the cap and electric cables are not covered.
General pipe-work: trace what pipes you can hide behind shelving, kitchen units, through attic insulation, stored goods, and other obstacles. The diameter of your surrounding pipe-work will be 10mm, 15mm or 22mm and there are simple foam strips of varying diameters to customise a good fit. They are slit down one side, and are simple to cut to size and manipulate on, bending neatly into any curves. Using a craft knife, pare the inside slightly if you have a strange bend or joint to get over or cut a mitre style join. Where there are any areas popping free or junctions, butt the lengths against each other and secure with insulating tape. Boxed in pipe-work can be warmed up in a stuffing of loose fibre insulation poked into the boxing.
Pipes from the immersion: The pipes going to hot water taps might seem less important as they are used incidentally for immediate hot water use, but lag them for at least their first 1m of length leaving the cylinder. Covering all these extremities will further insulate the tank itself, rather like keeping your toes and fingers in gloves and socks. Butt the pipe cover up to the immersion and tighten it there with a wind of insulating tape.
Outdoors: Use exterior grade sleeves to snug up outside taps, and feeds to and from any well point. Water lines should be well buried to allow the earth to act as an insulator. Outside walls in unheated garages, etc, are extremely cold, so lag carefully all pipes and isolate and drain these outside supplies if conditions are set to freeze. Look out for any exposed sections of your mains supply. The Cosy Home Store in Cork, have some superb products, including tap covers, a stop-cock cosy for outdoor use and kits for indoor pipes in user-friendly foam. http://www.cosyhomestore.ie/
Attic pipe-work: Here your pipes may be fixed to joists. The important thing is to make the insulation continuous where possible. Overflow and vent pipes peeking out of the attic should also be lagged. Cover any odd breaks that won’t surrender to your foam strips with a dedicated self-adhesive foam-wrap. This type of soft wrap is great for covering taps and stopcocks. . An infra-red light/heater can raise the temperature slightly in an unheated attic in freezing weather. Ensure it’s safely hung away from flammable materials.
Cold water tanks: With temperatures close to outdoor levels, the cold water storage tank and any expansion tank must be insulated. Fitted jackets with belts designed to meet the floor insulation are ideal. Alternatively, stuff heavy bin bags with roll insulation to make your own cover for the sides and top of your tank, tying in place. It’s critical to leave the base of the tank naked to the floor as these few degrees in an inhabited house are enough to keep the tank from freezing.
Further help: Anyone in receipt of the National Fuel Allowance in an owner occupied home can apply for insulation improvements through www.seia.ie or 1800-250204.
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