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Un-insulated hot water pipes – An easy fix with a good payback

One of the energy conservation deficiencies we are seeing more of during our recent energy audits is un-insulated hot water pipes. A low-cost energy measure recommendation would be to inspect for insulation on hot water pipes and repair or replace it as needed. If it is un-insulated, this means greater heat loss and more money spent on energy to heat this water. Mitigating energy losses from un-insulated pipes is generally inexpensive, has a short payback period, is very simple to do – and, once it’s corrected, it will stay corrected for a long time. This inspection and correction should be an important part of any scheduled maintenance plan in your facility, as we consistently find insulation that has been removed for a repair or is damaged and then never repaired or replaced. Personal safety and a safe touch temperature may also be a concern if exposed pipes are hot enough to cause burns. To help you calculate energy loss, pipeinsulation.org offers free software you can download. To give a quick example of the potential savings, suppose you have a 10-foot portion of un-insulated hot water pipe that is three inches in diameter. If you insulated it, annual savings would be approximately $46.00, assuming $0.11/kWh and 4,000 annual operating hours. Pretty nice savings for an approximate $30.00 investment compared to the repair costs for time and materials.

– Denise Rodriguez CEM

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