Insulating water tank loft/cupboard in edinburgh tenement

[ratemonotonic]

Hi all ,

I am a new home owner and am looking for some advice on insulating my water tank cupboard , which is located above my bathroom in my tenement flat(hope i explained it properly as I dont really know the exact terminology for it). I have figured out how to insulate the water tank. But I have the following problems -

1) what type of insulation to use for the floor and the walls of the cupboard?

2) There is a small rectangular slot in the cupboard going towards the bathroom and there is a draught comming through it. I dont know if it was intentional to allow some ventilation or it was just left there for me to sort out! Is it safe to seal it off using insulation material?

3) There are some electrical wires in the loft. What is the procedure for putting insulation material on top of them?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

BR
Rate

 

[JohnD]

A picture would be a great help.

I have a feeling that you are talking about what in England is called an Airing Cupboard and in Scotland is called a Hot Press.
I think it has a hot water cylinder in it which might be bare copper or if fairly new should be encased in hard plastic foam

and some copper pipes

and a cold water tank which might be round and or square and should have a lid on it to keep spiders out.

Am I right?

a cylinder

a cylinder jacket, abut £12 in your DIY shed

a cold water tank

pipe insulation (Climaflex is good but there are cheaper ones). up to about 50p a metre. it comes in sizes to fit 15mm or 22mm pipes. you may have some 28mm pipes and that size of insulation is harder to find

economy type

"Water Regulations" thicker type

Pipes in an unheated loft space or exposed to outside air must be insulated with the thicker foam.

preformed elbow insulator (about £2)

Electrical cables are better not buried in insulation. Lighting cables do not get hot as they are very lightly loaded, but larger cables for an immersion heater or especially an electric shower are heavily loaded and must not be buried.

I don't know what the ventilation slot is for unless you have a gas boiler in there.