Now I’m in hot water!

I finally had a visit from the plumber, as promised by my landlord. It happened while I was at work one day last week. I found out he’d been there after I got home when I turned on a water tap in my apartment and was startled by the loud burst of air and water that indicated the pipes had been partly emptied. I knew right away what must have happened and went down to the basement to see the result. Indeed, my hot water tank had been plumbed backwards, as evidenced by the fact that the plumber had refit the pipes to switch the hot and cold connections.

So last weekend I set to work installing the insulation I’d purchased earlier, for the tank and the hot water pipes. Here are some snaps of the process and results.

Wrapping the tank is easy enough, but I’m fortunate in having the most accessible, isolated tank in the basement of my building. Some of the others are pressed right against one another, making the prospect of wrapping them individually somewhat less than rosy. As it was, access to the back of the tank was tight enough. I passed the blanket inside the gas pipeline (which descends from the basement ceiling right beside the tank), but outside the pressure relief downpipe, which was plumbed very close to the tank.

The only unfortunate part about these blankets is that they’re not designed to cover the tops of the tanks, where heat loss is substantial; that’s to avoid interfering with the exhaust port. So some heat loss will continue to occur from the top of the tank. Still, I expect it’s a winning proposition.

Above is a shot of the finished tank. The insulation kit (purchased a Lowe’s) included vinyl tape to close the jacket.

Next, I installed thermal sleeves on the exposed hot water pipes, starting at the hot water tank. The plumbing is a mix of copper and Pex (or equivalent).

There’s something of a spider’s web of 1/2″ pipes on the ceiling because each unit has hookups for a washing machine, resulting in a lot more plumbing. I’m not using my hookups, so the hot water lines are basically just unfortunate radiators in my case. (Well, they would be in any case, wouldn’t they?)

I purchased the cheaper insulating sleeves and used up three 6′ lengths but ideally need more. I covered the main line going to my bathroom, but skipped the line to the washer/sinkhookup and the line going toward the kitchen. I can do those later when I buy more lengths of insulation. In some places, I’ll have to separate the hot and cold lines, as they were sometimes anchored together, in contact, probably for the plumber’s convenience.

Here’s a shot of my work, showing the compromises I had to make to get around the flush-mount pipe hangers. Using this ready-made product is very simple and takes very little time (unless your plumbing is awkwardly placed). Learning how to make turns can also be rather fun!

In any case, it’s a good starting project and can be done by almost anyone with a scissors and reasonable manual dexterity.

And it puts you one step further along on the road toward energy efficiency. Conservation and efficiency are often achieved incrementally. Start now!