I have a steam-radiator heating system. The furnace is in the (unfinished) basement, and the steam-carrying steel pipes spread out across the basement ceiling before going up into the rest of the house. Should I insulate these pipes in order to save energy in the winter? Or will the furnace itself heat the basement so much that insulating the pipes doesn't matter?
Basement – Should I insulate steam pipes in the basement
basementfurnaceinsulationradiatorsteam
Related Solutions
Thermal insulation (and a vapor barrier) is applied between the interior and exterior surfaces of the home. Unless you plan on leaving your basement unheated, you wouldn't place thermal insulation between the floors. And leaving it completely unheated is a bad idea since pipes can freeze.
The only reasons to place insulation between floors is for sound or to slow the spread of fire. For fire protection, the places you'd install insulation are where fire could spread up an opening like a chase for running duct work and other utility lines.
What's left is sound protection, and that is best provided by using flooring materials like carpeting above, and then separating the drywall from the joists with something like resilient channel. Insulation in the ceiling cavity will only reduce the high frequency sounds from above. The low frequency sounds, such as loud footsteps, will travel directly through the flooring, the joists, and be rebroadcast by the drywall. Think of sound like electricity, the joists as a short, and carpeting and resilient channel as tools to prevent that short.
You might have air in the pipework to the radiators. You can bleed air from the system's heating circuit (usually a bleed valve is present at the highest point in the pipework)
and from individual radiators.
Details vary depending on which side of the planet you are standing.
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Best Answer
Insulate the pipes.
You are likely losing a lot of heat into your basement if they aren't insulated. Unless your basement is finished (and therefore you want the heat there) you want to keep as much heat in those pipes as possible so that it gets into the main part of your house. The heater (and other similar equipment like hot water heater) should heat the room enough to avoid freezing or being a drain on the rest of the house, which is all you really need to worry about.
It can also be safety concern if those pipes are running places where you might inadvertently touch them.