Creative Idea for Water Pipe Insulation

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ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Make your own water pipe insulation with foam coffee cups.

In these days, when squeezing every bit of warmth from your home heating fuel is important, you can’t afford to overlook the energy loss that may occur when hot water passes from your boiler to your radiators.

For example, in my home, as in so many others, hot water travels through a number of exposed pipes–in an unheated basement–before it actually starts to warm the living room, a process that wastes energy (and money). The answer, of course, is water pipe insulation . . . but the cost of manufactured pipe insulation is surprisingly high. Happily, though, I’ve found a way to make high-efficiency insulation myself, and–since the raw materials consist of discarded plastic foam drinking cups–the price is right!

How Water Pipe Insulation Works

As any heat-transfer expert will tell you, wrapping water conduits with just any old material can actually result in heat loss instead of conservation. That’s because placing anything around a pipe increases the surface area that’s exposed to cold air. Therefore, whatever wrap you use must have a high insulating value in order to offset that factor. Fortunately, polystyrene foam is one of the very best insulators around, and used coffee containers have two other features that contribute to their efficiency. First, only the edge of each cup’s bottom is in contact with the hot pipe, which effectively limits conductive heat loss. Second, since the overlapping cups were originally intended to withstand the temperatures of boiling water, they’re not likely to be melted by hot pipes.

Finding the Materials

  • Published on Jan 1, 1984
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