Looking for some advice. I have metal heating duct attached to the basement ceiling. There is currently no insulation on it. I was going to seal the seams with mastic tape and can lay fiberglass insulation on top. Any thoughts on how to insulate the sides and bottom. Not a lot of head room, and not a finished basement. Thanks for your ideas. Jay
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Use foil tape for the joints.
And why would you need to insulate?
Lowes sells a foil-covered fiberglass insulation blanket for ducts. I don't remember how long the stuff is, but you unroll it, cut off what you need, and lay it over the duct lengthwise. Then wrap it around the duct, overlapping to suit, and tape it with the foil duct tape made for that purpose.
I used that in my family room renovation last year. It wasn't the only thing I did along those lines, but two winters ago I needed auxiliary heat in there with all four vents wide open, and last year it was toasty with the vents half closed. Had I known it would work out that well, I would've used one duct for air recirculation.
Add 3/4" foam board to all sides should help. Use some straping to drop the main duct for space to slide in the pieces.
Reason for this is to get the heating/cooling to where it needed and not lost along the way.
It really isn't lost. It's all considered "conditioned space". Up here in Canada the only time I saw insulated ducting was in unheated areas that were not in the conditioned space. When I was in HVAC we did alot of furnace jobs.
roger
Instead of tape, use a latex mastic specificly made to seal ducts. Otherwise another poster was right - it's in "conditioned" space, which means it's never going to be too hot or cold. You will lose more hot or cold air though the gaps that aren't sealed that you will heat transmission in your basement.
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
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