This is probably a silly question, because I can't seem to find an answer. I have a heat pump in the attic of my house that heats and cools the upstairs. There are two tubes coming out of the unit. One is thin bare copper. The other is larger and has foam insulation around it. Both tubes run down through the closet and out the side of the house near the floor. I think they both get hot at times. Do you think it would it be OK to put fiberglass insulation around them and put a temporary cover over them in the closet?
@Nancy Hart Not seeing how your unit is set up, I'm going on standard Heat pump installation. The 'small line' is your liquid line and the 'larger line' is the suction or vapor line. Due to how a Heat Pump works, the liquid ( small line ) is left uninsulated. If your attic gets extremely hot during the summer, it won't hurt to insulate the 'small line' IMO. If not, I'd leave it as is. You probably won't see much improvement in savings to insulate this line. You could do it for protection in the closet. As always, the manufacturer's recommendation is the key. Also, I would go with the black armaflex foam insulation as it is easier to work with. You can find it at any Home Improvement store. Hope this helps.
Thanks, Tim. I'm not concerned about saving money, just insulating around the outside wall right behind the stuff, and especially where it all goes outside. I've got it boxed in on 3 sides. Then I think I'll put loose fiberglass in there and put a temporary cover on the 4th side, mainly just so I don't keep bumping into the tubes accidentally?
That should be fine. Yes, keeping the lines outside insulated is the key to all units, especially Heat pumps.