Home heating duct question

[CoogarXR]

I live in a 150-year old house that was converted (rather sloppily) to forced-air. One of the big main ducts runs up through the back corner of an unused closet. The closet is of course unused because it gets very hot in there from heat radiating off that duct, and I'm kinda afraid to put anything near it.

My question is, can I box the duct in? If so, should I insulate it to keep the new wall from getting hot? If so, what kind of insulation?

Sorry for the dumb question, but I would like to gain use of this closet and not burn the house down.

 

[justinjoyal]

I live in a 150-year old house that was converted (rather sloppily) to forced-air. One of the big main ducts runs up through the back corner of an unused closet. The closet is of course unused because it gets very hot in there from heat radiating off that duct, and I'm kinda afraid to put anything near it.



My question is, can I box the duct in? If so, should I insulate it to keep the new wall from getting hot? If so, what kind of insulation?



Sorry for the dumb question, but I would like to gain use of this closet and not burn the house down.

The duct should be far from hot enough to be dangerous.

You can build a drywall partition around it.

 

[fitter30]

All furnaces have 30-60* temp rise between return air and supply air. Fiberglass insulation should be fine.

 

[Bretny]

Is the duct backed up to an uninsulated exterior wall? It may be time to insulate that side as well.

 

[CoogarXR]

Is the duct backed up to an uninsulated exterior wall? It may be time to insulate that side as well.

No, it's in the back-corner of an interior closet. Almost dead-center of the house with no exterior walls.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

That's a common installation. Just insulate it.

Tommy

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Better to insulate it than to only box it in. If you box it in you may be creating a chimney for the heat to go to whatever is above.

 

[Jackfre]

They make a duct wrap insulation gray plastic cover over the insulation . It comes in large rolls. Measure the circumference and height and go to a sheet metal shop and buy what you need. If the plenums and other bare metal need it, buy a roll.

 

[CoogarXR]

Cool, thanks for the tips.