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Heating & Air Conditioning

Question on PEX Tubing

15 years ago

My home has PEX tubing for all our non heating runs, especially in our basement. My question is: do I need to insulate the tubing ( & can I ) to avoid the heat loss for the hot water side. Our basement is unheated other then the furnace being down there. What I don't want to do is have the hot water side lose its heat when its trying to supply the upstairs shower etc. Any thoughts on this? I know copper pipes you can but this PEX stuff is new to me.

Big Al

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Comments (2)

zl700
15 years ago
As a side benefit of PEX, it already has an insulating quality to it, as much as 30% better than copper. This is because copper has a fairly high emmisitivity characteristic.

To reduce your losses further you may go ahead and put insulation covering on your PEX. Most often the open cell insulation that is pre-slit with joining adhesive available in 6Â lengths is used.
mikeyvon
15 years ago
I insulated all of my hot water pex with 3/4" wall open cell stuff zl700 is talking about.
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