I've got 1m of blue plastic water pipe coming out the floor of my unheated garage. Garage is separate from the house so doesn't get any warmth from that. Pipe diameter is 25mm and goes to a tap. I can't isolate this separately from the house so wondering about frost protection and if I should put a trace heat cable on it
I live in Somerset so not the coldest place but we have had a few nights recently where it's been down to -6. I've only lived here a year, and I'm guessing as the house was built about 15 years ago and pipe is uninsulated that maybe it's nothing to worry about? Or should I just stick some pipe insulation on and forget about it? I wasn't sure if just foam pipe wrap would do much as there's no heat in garage anyway, and the tap is only used once a week so it wouldn't really be insulating much warmth in the pipe?
Is a pipe that size likely to freeze?
Thanks!
Easier solution would be to put a small electric heater, e.g. a greenhouse heater with a froststat near it. Something like this, which is about the same power as an old lightbulb.
https://share.google/uGwUcZ8pSQwS2RNDh
I live in Somerset so not the coldest place but we have had a few nights recently where it's been down to -6.
-6 on the weather forecast? Or -6 actually measured in the garage?
It takes several weeks of subzero weather for the temp inside my unheated brick workshop to get down below +5deg.
I'd stick a thermometer in there first and just see what the actual temperature is but a trace element heater is super easy to fit though and a more targeted solution than a greenhouse heater if its only a short section of hose you're protecting. More general frost protection is useful if you have more water in things or had stuff like paint stored in there that would be spoiled by frost. If you had a toilet in there form instance the water in the U-bend would be vulnerable to freezing and breaking the plumbing and thats when it makes more sense to gently heat the space as a whole
Yeah get a thermometer to see what's what
My dad used to put an inspection lamp on and leave it in his shed where the water supply came in. Seemed to work but this was in the 70s when life was cheap.
Along term I'd try and fit an isolator, then you could drain and not worry
Short term IE overnight you could crack the tap open so the water ran very slightly as moving water won't freeze as easily. Not sure how you'd collect it, trug or similar sized container
I had an exposed copper pipe in an unheated store room burst years ago. The pipe fed a tap that hadn't been used in weeks and I don't think it would have happened if it was used more frequently.
Anyway I would imagine that your alkathene pipe should be less prone to splitting and I believe that loft insulation is more effective than those silly foam pipe insulators that don't really fit very well - so I'd just wrap some of that around it.
The ground below the floor will be warm and having a building above it will insulate. I'd be very surprised if the garage floor went negative at -6. So put a couple of layers of foam pipe wrap on and leave a thermometer next to it.
Good idea about the thermometer, I'll see how cold it's actually getting in the garage first!
Thanks!
We have an uninsulated garage with a sink and pipes covered in foam insulator run through the garage to the sink. Wife's car said -8 yesterday morning and the pipe had frozen. Had an icicle coming out of the tap. Luckily defrosted by this morning without splitting the copper pipe, but I was surprised it had frozen in the garage and with pipe lagging. Turned off at the isolator this morning to stop an issue going forward.
What are you worried about, not being able to use the tap in the cold weather or it bursting/leaking?
We've got 3x external taps, all fed from MDPE blue pipe, 2x on the outside of buildings and 1x on a fence post (so quite exposed) all 3 are covered in grey pipe lagging. yes they freeze, but in the 10 years we've been here none have burst.
wrap it in pipe lagging and away to go.
". If you had a toilet in there form instance the water in the U-bend would be vulnerable to freezing "
In the 1980s there was a cold winter in Glasgow. I was away from my first floor tenement flat overnight and when I got back the water in the toilet had iced over. Around the same time a 2" lead rising main in the wall behind the plaster froze and burst. It was -15C during the day though.
Google suggests it was the 1981-82 winter. Paisley recorded a -17c then.
Jan 82 I was in a farm house in Mid Wales. We left the tap running to prevent freezing which ran the spring-sourced reservoir dry and the supply pipe to the reservoir was frozen. The snow filled the road to the top of the hedges, the power went off. The Rayburn and some caving lamps saved the day.
I install trace heating as part of my work. While this will solve any problem with the pipe freezing it would still require thermal insulation to work correctly. You will also need a thermostat and power to the area.
Honestly in my view insulate the pipe with a good quality insulation (not the grey crap from B and Q).
Pipe in unheated brick garage and insulated with grey polystyrene foam is fine.
Uninsulated tap on the end did freeze, now sporting a duct tape and polystyrene packaging jacket.
A 2m trace heating kit, with wire, stat, etc is only about £35 (Trace heating Uk) as an example, easy to fit. Basically if you can't add an isolator they do the job. We have used them outside in freezing temps, they work as long as power stays on! Anyway worth knowing.