There are few energy reduction products I get as excited about as I do for lagging. I can’t quite explain why this is. I suspect it may have something to do with previous experiences of being stuck in plant rooms sweating like a pregnant nun because of insufficient lagging.
How much do pregnant nuns sweat in any case?
Opportunities for lagging are usually identified during an energy audit or on a visit to an area for another reason, only to discover the particular area is incredibly hot. One can usually spot the need for lagging when one is smacked in the face by the heat hitting them upon entry.
In the heating process, energy is consumed and lost in 3 main ways. The efficiency of your heat source. The efficiency of the transportation of the heat. And, the insulation level of the desired area being heated.
In my experience, it is the transportation and the lagging thereof that is often overlooked. I have known entire boiler rooms to be unlagged. It is upon entering these boiler rooms, that you tend to get smacked in the face by the heat.
Maybe we need to start issuing asbo’s for unlagged boiler rooms
For me the heat loss is rather unnecessary. We want heat to arrive in our desired location. So why do we allow it to escape before it has even got there? It isn’t just commerce and industry that is guilty of this. Our homes are largely unlagged.
I grew up in a house that came equipped with an airing cupboard. Which was of course a place to dry clothes due to an unlagged or un-jacketed water cylinder. I can also recall being in the tiny cellar beneath our house with my father and surprise surprise, all the heating pipes were unlagged.
If you want to check whether the heating pipes under your floorboards (that you probably can’t access) are lagged, I suggest you get a cat. Cats are incredibly successful at finding unlagged pipe work beneath floorboards. They generally tend to lie or sleep above them.
Who would have thought that cats were so energy conscious?
Cats are also very good at ripping up carpets which although annoying and costly, means that one can then access those unlagged pipes.
Joking aside if you can access the heating pipes beneath your floorboards, I strongly recommend that you get them lagged. This is relatively cheap to do, is something you can do yourself and will deliver some significant savings.
My passion for lagging began when I found my shirt wet with sweat whilst in a boiler room working on the BMS system as part of a service visit. I recall looking round and seeing that the pipework was mostly lagged, but still I was thinking.....
“Why is it so unbelievably hot in here?”
Upon investigation, I realised that although the pipework was lagged, the flanges and valves were not. Some of the valves were significant in size and as such, acted as individual heat sources for the boiler room. Heat given away in the boiler room means that more heat is required to recover these losses.
This brings up the question of, why do we bother lagging pipework but leave valves and flanges exposed. This is such a waste. Particularly as most lagging manufacturers can also supply bags that snugly fit around the entire flange and or valve.
Lagging has provided some both comical and annoying moments from several colleagues of mine. I remember questioning why a large heating pipe wasn’t lagged only to be told....
“Yeah, but that pipe is helping to heat this area”
I also remember an occasion after completely lagging a previously unlagged boiler room in a sport centre. I received a phone call from one of the Duty Managers who said....
“Now Jeremy, this lagging is all well and good but where are we expected to dry our towels?”
This is an example of the level of complete stupidity I have had to deal with on all too many occasions.
Opportunities for lagging do not just exist in boiler rooms. Buildings will have a network of pipe runs distributing heated water throughout the building. In my experience it is well worth following pipe runs (where accessible) from boiler room to destination.
I once found 247 metres of unlagged pipe work using this method in one particular building. This included finding exposed heating pipework within suspended ceilings. Which always makes me smile because no one works within the ceiling void so why are we so keen to heat it?
So if you are thinking of undertaking a lagging survey, don’t just survey your plant or boiler rooms. Track everywhere the heating pipe runs go, as you will find significantly more opportunities to capture savings.
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