Crawl Space Water piping

[pudgybear]

Probably the wrong place but here goes: I am running a new Hot / Cold water piping system in my crawl space under my house my question is: here in Michigan do I need to run a heat tape or can I just use the foam insulation covering ?

 

[Kaizen]

really depends on temp of crawlspace. is there heat at all down there from heating pipes? also how much do these get used. a pipe in 33 degrees will freeze on a heating system at lower pressure then a water pipe under pressure. I used pex when I redid my crawlspace to run pipe for water and kickspace heaters. the kickspace I had a supply and return and taped them together inside I think a 2inch rubber foam insulation. did same for my hot and cold water. made sure there was no gaps. that branch of my heat did not freeze this winter while another in copper did. (I use wood to heat mostly)

 

[matt_i]

As stated it depends. A nice tight crawlspace will do better than some pieces of metal siding loosely tacked against the house. If you heat your house to 72F in winter or 57F will also make a difference.

Another issue is how far you are from the sides, you can probably safely assume there is a temperature gradient which is highest in the center, lowest outside, so it will be colder along the walls.

Amazon sells a temp regulated electric outlet designed for heating animals' water bowls, it turns on at 35F or below, off at 45F or above. You could use that for the heat tape as an insurance policy, or just wait until next winter on the -20F overnight to find out for sure. It could possibly be just fine.

 

[D45]

I also have hot and cold water pipes ran through my crawl space, into the garage

the copper pipes are not coated or wrapped, and I have no issues

NW Indiana weather, and we have some COLD winters

 

[finn]

If in doubt, I'd use Pex and some sort of heater.

Lots easier, and cheaper, to do it now than in February while you on your back under the house thawing and/or replacing pipes because some random internet poster from Alabama or Florida said you didn't need auxiliary heating in Michigan.

 

[sixty4]

Had a customer that had a similar situation. Even with the foam covering (armaflex) it would freeze. We ended up using the white fiberglass insulation that had a higher R value, never happened again. The last two winters have been really rough here in New England.

 

[Jackfre]

Run pex for the piping and yes the fiberglass insulation is best, but difficult to run on pex. For rigid piping like galvanized or copper yes, use the fiberglass but I would use 3/4" wall armaflex on Pex . Also, what I do is slide the afore mentioned metal plates up under the siding at the vents to prevent the circulation of the coldest air. I remove them in the spring. So far so good.