Solution? (Heating Crawlspace - Pipes Freezing)

[Dave Miller]

I also have a problem with pipes freezing in a crawlspace. I own a duplex that I live on the second and third floor of and rent out the first floor apartment. Most of the house has a warm basement (oil heater) beneath it but the kitchen for the first floor apartment was an addition with only a crawlspace below. As long as I have a tenant, the pipes don't freeze. Not because I turn the heat off (I don't) but because (I think) the water is run a few times a day to keep things thawed. My first thought is to get some warm air from the basement into the crawlspace but it's an old house with stone basement walls with brick above that. To get a big enough opening for the air exchange wouldn't be easy. Then I thought why couldn't I run a loop from the hot water system that feeds the cast iron radiators that heat my home? I could put the loop in the same joist cavity that the fresh water supply lines run in. My first concern is where to put a bleeder valve but other than that I think it would throw off enough heat to keep things above freezing down there. The added bonus is that it's not wasted heat because as the heat rises, it would heat the kitchen floor.

Any thoughts? Do you think it would work or can you improve on it? I thought I would use cast pipe (galvanized or black? I don't know) because I thought it would continue to hold and radiate heat better than copper when the circulator is not on.

Thanks for any help.

Dave

[noname87]

How about using heater tape with a built in thermostat?

[Dave Miller]

Thanks, yes that is what I'm doing now. Sadly I can't leave well enough alone and I'm always trying to build a better mouse trap. I just figure using the heat I am already making would be more efficient than the electric for heat tape.

Thanks again, Dave

[Joseph Meehan]

Heat tape is likely to be the most efficient and least expensive of possible solutions.

[Mark]

One of the key points about insulating...

don't just wrap up the pipes to insulate them...

instead place the insulatoin to form a barrier from the pipes tot the cold space but not a barrier between the pipes and the warm space. Isulation does not keep things warm it just reduces the flow of heat, you want the heat to be able to flow from the kitchen to the pipes.

Mark

[PipeDown]

How about a passive hot water recirculating valve. These usually attach under a bathroom sink(furthest from tank) from hot to cold when the hot valve cools to a setpoint, the recirc valve opens up and allows hot to flow into the cold line. Here is one of several products

and it requires no electricity and no pump (gravity/convection)