# SHOULD I INSULATE THE BOILER ROOM?



## jimdeq (Jan 9, 2011)

My boiler room is 8'x11' inside my attached garage.  The inside is sheeted with 5/8" fire code sheetrock.  I am enjoying the little bit of heat loss off the boiler and pipeing which is keeping my garage around 40 degrees.  I was going to insulate the walls so I dont have to worry about freezing in the event of vacation,door open,power loss,etc,etc.  Does anyone think i should not insulate?  My garage is also insulated but very drafty around the doors.


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## rowerwet (Jan 9, 2011)

any insulation is a plus in the heat loss battle


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## Como (Jan 9, 2011)

Assuming you have water in the system, how are you going to stop the pipes freezing? Do you have a back up heat source?


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## bigburner (Jan 10, 2011)

I would seal the garage doors,  have  agas unit heater in my garage with a hot water coil in front of it. We keep it 50F


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## jimdeq (Jan 10, 2011)

I was thinking I would put a small electric heater with a thermostat to kick on if room temps got down to 40 degrees.


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## Como (Jan 10, 2011)

I have a similar thing in mind, the better the insulation the smaller the back up heat and if there was a power supply failure the longer you have.

Somebody told me that they have an alarm on their house that calls  their cell phone if the temp drops below a certain point, something I will look into.


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## barnartist (Jan 10, 2011)

I ended up sealing up my woodstove using 2" blueboard. I lined the inside with foil bubble wrap in case my stack gets really hot to keep the blueboard from melting. Since my boiler sits up tight against my garage, I cut a 6" hole out that allows whatever heat that comes off the boiler into the garage area. I like it, dont regret it. My system should be able to withstand the cold for quite a while without freezing now.


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## heaterman (Jan 10, 2011)

jimdeq said:
			
		

> I was thinking I would put a small electric heater with a thermostat to kick on if room temps got down to 40 degrees.



That's how we usually set up our "external" boiler rooms. If you're going to be gone for a week or so with no one firing your boiler you can just valve it off and let your backup system heat the house. Rather than using a small electric heater though, we install a strip of electric baseboard on a thermostat. Much more reliable. The only drawback is that it requires its own 220V circuit.


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## 711mhw (Jan 10, 2011)

I would insulate the heck out of it with provisions to blow air thru it? (the boiler rm) to warm up your garage when you want clese it when you may need to retain the heat.


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