atuel
New Member
So my place is run with CPVC. Its in the crawl space in SE US and there is absolutely no insulation on any of the pipe. We have also noticed that it takes 5 or more minutes for the hot water to become hot when running the shower, etc.
I'm having my crawl space sealed along with my new A/C unit so the space will be semi conditioned vs the pretty much open to the ouside shape its in now.
So I was considering adding some insulation to the pipes and possibly adding a hot water circulator. Any advice on type of circulator or on type of insulation to use on the pipes?
My house is farily long compared to its width and the new water heater is going to be way at one end of the house (in the garage).
My new A/C is geothermal and will have a desuper heater on it. I'm contemplating using a tankless electirc (I have the current available and no gas near me), but may end up going with a hybrid heat pump model since it'll be in the garage and its 90+ all summer long here and will probably be way more efficient than the tankless.
What I was thinking about doing after they remove all my ducting for the new A/C and since I have to do a bunch of this anyway to relocate the water heater is add a loop in the crawl space that can circulate water such that there will only be the run to the second floor which is only like 10' of 1/2" CPVC so that would cut the distance the water runs by a ton. I can easily insulate all that pipe since its exposed in the crawl space.
Then see how that goes. If its not enough, I can add a valve to circulate water from hot to cold at the fixture to try to warm up that run.
I'm having my crawl space sealed along with my new A/C unit so the space will be semi conditioned vs the pretty much open to the ouside shape its in now.
So I was considering adding some insulation to the pipes and possibly adding a hot water circulator. Any advice on type of circulator or on type of insulation to use on the pipes?
My house is farily long compared to its width and the new water heater is going to be way at one end of the house (in the garage).
My new A/C is geothermal and will have a desuper heater on it. I'm contemplating using a tankless electirc (I have the current available and no gas near me), but may end up going with a hybrid heat pump model since it'll be in the garage and its 90+ all summer long here and will probably be way more efficient than the tankless.
What I was thinking about doing after they remove all my ducting for the new A/C and since I have to do a bunch of this anyway to relocate the water heater is add a loop in the crawl space that can circulate water such that there will only be the run to the second floor which is only like 10' of 1/2" CPVC so that would cut the distance the water runs by a ton. I can easily insulate all that pipe since its exposed in the crawl space.
Then see how that goes. If its not enough, I can add a valve to circulate water from hot to cold at the fixture to try to warm up that run.