PIPE INSULATION

Enlarge Image Image Gallery ABOVE: The bench serves two purposes: It holds the soldering gun in place /with a wedge to allow for easy removal), and its channel guides the polystyrene past the gun's hot tip. RIGHT: We shaped this piece of insulation for a 90? elbow completely by hand. BELOW: To obtain a tee molding, make a straight cut, then hand-form the leg. BELOW, RIGHT: The working part of thegroover

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Not too many years ago there was only one reason why anyone would go to the trouble—and expense—of insulating his or her home's water pipes: to keep them from freezing. But, as the cost of thermal energy has ballooned, there's been a real increase in public interest in conservation measures . . . and one of the "newly discovered" ways to save a little energy and money is to install pipe insulation.

On first thought, the benefit of insulating hot water lines (aside from the fact that doing so can prevent an unfortunate chill-induced rupture) would seem, to be simply in keeping the BTU—which have been produced at considerable expense by your water heater-inside the pipes. There are, however, a couple of other pluses that should be considered. First, if the water in the pipes stays hot, there will be less lag time between turning on the tap and the arrival of hot liquid . . . so both heat and water are saved in the process. And there's another advantage to keeping the warmth inside the lines: :During the torrid summer months, hot pipes can add to the misery by pouring additional warmth into an already uncomfortable home.

THANK THE SUN

Pipe insulation (not to be confused with the electric conduit heaters often used to prevent freeze-up) has actually gotten its biggest boost from the pioneers of the solar hot water movement. No device that depends upon the sun for its heat can afford to give up warmth through its delivery lines. (After all, when you're relying on a collector, you can't compensate for poor insulation by merely turning up the thermostat.)

Unhappily, though, effective insulation that will fit snugly around a pipe hasn't been easy to make or inexpensive: Prefabricated tubing protectors now run between 30¢ and $2.60 per foot. And, with costs that high, insulating the waterlines might not be the first item on an energy saver's checklist.

On the other hand, if folks could prepare their own pipe "sleeves" from relatively inexpensive material, the prospect might look a lot more enticing. In fact, when the search for an economical insulator for solar collector outlets led MOTHER's research staffers to the discovery of the method of making tubing wrappers presented here, they were a little surprised to find that the material can be produced so inexpensively. At a scant 110 per foot (based on a local price of $10.60 for a 4' X 8' sheet of 1" polystyrene insulation), our do-it-yourself technique produces pipe wrapping at just about a third the price of its least expensive ready-made competition.

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