This has been bugging me since we moved into our house 5 years ago! For about 20 metres, the cold water pipes run along the length of the outside of the Western wall, at around knee-height. This wall gets very very hot in summer. So in summer the pipe is heated by the sun, and the water inside is very hot - in fact, it is hotter than the water coming from the hot water tank!!! So to get water we have to run the cold water tap and waste about 15 seconds' worth of water. It's so hot that, on a summer's day, if I want cold water within about 5 minutes of the last time I opened the cold water tap, I have to run the cold water tap for another 15 seconds until the hot water runs out. It's a *huge* waste of water. There's no problem at all on cool or cold days. I was thinking of insulating the length of pipe that runs along the western wall . . . but have no idea if it's possible, or how to go about it, or what to use. I have seen pipe insulation at harware stores but it's all black or grey dense foam so it seems to me like it's designed to keep heat in the pipes. Is that sort of insulation also going to work to stop the baking sun from heating the water in my pipes?

Any advice or suggestions gratefully received!!! Thanks in advance, everyone.


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