Insulating under cold water tank?

paperclap

Hi all,

In my loft, I’ve a cold water tank. It’s raised.

The previous owner had insulated beneath it.

I think best practice is to not insulate beneath it, so as to have the heat from the house help prevent it from freezing. It that right?

Have read mixed things!

Thanks!

cerebus

If the loft is correctly insulated with 270mm of insulation then there won't be any heat from the rooms below to prevent it freezing 

Fully insulating it is a wise move 

EssexExile

I wouldn't insulate under it.

YBR

paperclap said:

I think best practice is to not insulate beneath it, so as to have the heat from the house help prevent it from freezing. It that right?

Have read mixed things!

Thanks!

I think the same as you. Insulate the sides and top, but allow the heat from the house to be a mitigation against freezing pipes/tank and the damage when they thaw again.

ThisIsWeird

How raised is it, PC? Can you 'sleeve' or drape the loft insulation around the stand to tunnel the small amount of house heat up to the tank, and not just let it into the whole loft?

For an F&E tank, you can probably add anti-freeze instead?

stuart45

You can get cold water tank jackets.

ThisIsWeird

stuart45 said:

You can get cold water tank jackets.

I wasn't suggesting that the tanks shouldn't be insulated - they definitely should.

paperclap

The tank does currently have a black jacket thing on, with, I think, a slab of polystyrene on top of it (within the jacket).

Mistral001

paperclap said:

Hi all,

In my loft, I’ve a cold water tank. It’s raised.

The previous owner had insulated beneath it.

I think best practice is to not insulate beneath it, so as to have the heat from the house help prevent it from freezing. It that right?

Have read mixed things!

Thanks!

Yes best practice is to NOT insulate below the tank.  As has been said it is to provide some heat from below to the water in the tank and help preventing it from freezing. 

cerebus

Mistral001 said:

paperclap said:

Hi all,

In my loft, I’ve a cold water tank. It’s raised.

The previous owner had insulated beneath it.

I think best practice is to not insulate beneath it, so as to have the heat from the house help prevent it from freezing. It that right?

Have read mixed things!

Thanks!

Yes best practice is to NOT insulate below the tank.  As has been said it is to provide some heat from below to the water in the tank and help preventing it from freezing. 

Even if the loft is correctly insulated therefore no heat from the house can transfer into the loft and the tank is raised off the floor providing an air gap between the loft floor and bottom of the tank?

Op - please confirm what loft insulation you have and what is the tank sat on , is it a full board or slats?

cerebus

In the old days with little to no insulation on the loft floor keeping the bottom exposed to allow heat from the house  to warm the tank to prevent it from freezing 

Nowadays with highly insulated loft floors the norm , the situation has changed somewhat