Insulate your water pipes
Importance of insulation:
On an average basis it is seen that approximately 50 to 70 % of the total energy is spend on heating and cooling and about 20% goes for heating water in most of the American homes. On the other hand, lighting and appliances and everything else account for only 10 to 30% of the energy used in most residences. If a house was constructed with special attention to energy efficiency, an addition of insulation will probably reduce the utility bills. Surveys that are conducted recently have shown that much of the existing housing stock in the United States is not insulated to the best level. It is also found that older homes are likely to use more energy than newer homes, leading to very high heating and air-conditioning bills. Even in case of a new home, adding insulation may save enough money in reduced utility bills to pay for itself within a few years and more over it will continue to save money for as long as one owns the home, and also may increase the resale value of the house.
Insulation of water pipes:
The main function of insulation in case of water pipes is the prevention of any form of loss of water through leakage and thus promoting energy conservation. Both the cold and hot water pipes leaving the water heater should be insulated as it helps reduce recirculation losses by water cooling off in the pipes and sinking back into the tank to be reheated. Besides this insulation also cuts down on the reciurculation losses effectively. Basically water pipe irrigation comes in two main types, one is the insulating tape that must be wrapped around the pipe by hand, and tubes pre-slit to slip over the pipe and each of them is used in specific purposes. If the piping to be insulated is easily accessible but has lots of bends in it, tape style insulation can be easier to apply. However, if the piping has lots of long straight runs, tubular insulation installs more quickly. For ease of use the tubular insulation with self-sealing seams is the best although it costs about three times as much as the non-sealing tubes.
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