Insulating A Water Filter

[crokett™]

I need to insulate a sediment filter.  It's a GE whole house filter, the kind where the filter canister hangs below the water line.   The insulation needs to be waterproof, or protected somehow.  The filter is mounted on a post outside.  If we had to, we could frame a roof of some sort over the filter.   This is a semi-permanent water line that I helped someone install today that will likely be gone this summer.  It has heat tape on it now. It gets below freezing here, but really cold for us is low 20s.  Teens are very rare.  We need to make the insulation removable so that the filter can be changed, though we're hoping to leave the filter there until the weather warms up.  I was thinking of sheet foam but would need a way to have the front and bottom be removable but still be attached back.  Would sheet foam provide enough insulation given there would be a cavity around the filter?

[Snipe Hunter]

Not going to even ask why it wasn't installed indoors.

Wrap it loosely in fiber glass and cover it with a garbage bag. Or, build a box out of ridged foam and glue it together with contact cement. Maybe make it so it can come apart to change filters.

[6270_Productions]

A good "temporary" insulated structure is a pile of straw bales - not sure what your HOA would think about that.

[crokett™]

He doesn’t have an HOA. It would take too long to explain why it wasn’t indoors. I’ll say that for the length of time it will be used indoors was/is a lot more time and money than was worth doing. It’s a matter of opinion anyway. A garbage bag is not a bad idea. I’m also thinking bubble wrap.

[fixtureman]

Why not wrap it with heat tape

[crokett™]

It has heat tape on iit Does it need insulation also?

[fixtureman]

How cold does it get there and for how long

[jteneyck]

As was said, wrap it with fiberglass and cover it with a garbage bag.  If it doesn't leak, and it shouldn't, there's no need to use waterproof insulation.  

Unless water is running 100% of the time the heat tape will still be needed, but check it a few hours after installing the insulation package to make sure it doesn't get too hot. You'll only need a few watts of power.

John

[Stwood_]

Yep.
Heat tape.
Insulation of some kind.
Garbage bag or a 5 gallon bucket over the top of it.

[crokett™]

Quote doesn’t sent seem to work on my iPad.  Anyway overnight lows can get to low 20s but daytime highs  are nearly always above freezing.