Water pipe insulation

[JonathanTaylor]

Hi,

My bathroom hot & cold water pipes and central heating pipes run through a loft area of my house. Last year the central heating pipes froze in the cold, so I added radiator anti-freeze and that has been OK since.

This year, the water pipes are frozen.....

The problem is that the pipes have been run along the inside face of a North facing exterior wall inside the loft area, but have not been insulated. The loft area gets cold and the pipes freeze (the previous owner has even retro-fitted radiators in the loft area, so maybe had similar problems to those I now face).

The two water pipes are fitted very close together and tight to the wall; so close that I cannot get polyethylene pipe insulation around the pipes.

What are my options for insulation? I was considering either coating the pipes in expanding foam (do not really want to do this though, as it will make any future maintenance a pain), or spiral wrap (I think with some effort I can wrap around both pipes, although they are fitted very tight to the wall). I read here http://www.essortment.com/home/installingpipe_ttbe.htm that you can get spiral wrap with a very small electrical current passing through it. Has anyone seen this in the UK before, can anyone recommend it, and does anyone know any suppliers?

 

[hibeealex]

Jonathon,

you are thinking of trace heating but thats more for commercial application, have you tried wrapping loft insulation over them, just get it as tight to the pipe work as you can and also a liberal amount on top, its going to be easier and can be just as effective, there's lofts all over the uk with pipe work like that

 

[JonathanTaylor]

Thanks for the tip. I've wrapped them in loft insulation now, so hopefully that will do the trick.

 

[zedhead]

When you say they are tight to the wall, can you not change the clips to give more room
Baza