Benefits of insulation for your stove vent pipe
Duct insulation may be one of the easy methods of achieving energy efficiency in your home.
Lower Energy Bills
There can be many causes behind an inefficient heating or cooling system. However, insulating the ductwork is frequently one of the 1st steps you can take if you should make these systems more effective while decreasing your energy bills at the same time. You can benefit from duct insulation in both the colder or warmer months of the year.
Improved Comfort
The comfort in your house is influenced by the temperature levels, so controlling temperature fluctuations is a major reason to have a better HVAC system in the 1st place. Since good duct insulation isolates your home against outside temperatures, it keeps the home at a more stable temperature and raises your comfort.
Lower Levels of Noise
Your ductwork can produce all types of odd noises. Air blowing via your ducts can make whistling, rattling, buzzing noises. In the winter months, metal ducts can expand as the heated air travels through them, and they can contract when the system is off; this expansion and contraction may cause popping and creaking noises. Duct insulation doesn’t remove these sounds, but it acts as a damper that may greatly decrease the noise level.
Vent Insulation for Oven Hoods
Using a vent hood over the cooking range remove odors and smoke, and also keeps your family safe by removing carbon monoxide, gas odors, and other harmful stuff from the air around the cooktop. Few range vent hoods utilize filters to remove harmful particulates and circulate the air back into the kitchen. More common, however, are vent hoods that ventilate air directly out of the home through a system of ductwork.
Insulation Around Range Hood Duct
Like other duct systems in the house, insulation around range hood ducts reduces nuisance noise and vibration. But significantly, insulating ductwork, wherever ducts run via unheated parts of the home, will prevent air loss through the thin metal ducts. Insulation will prevent the buildup of condensation and the moisture issues that result from condensation accumulation.
Recommended Insulation Materials
For ductwork insulation, the United States Department of Energy suggests rigid fiberboard insulation to insulate your ductwork. Install the insulation as per the directions of the manufacturer. Before insulating, however, seal all openings in your ductwork; insulating ductwork with unsealed openings is an exercise in futility at best. The high R-value duct insulation for rigid fiberboard is R-6.5 to R-6.8, which is made of polyisocyanurate foam. This kind of insulation has reflective foil on both sides, with a foil vapor barrier to the back and a white foil finish on the front. Extruded polystyrene (XPS) rigid foam insulation has an R-value of about R-5 and expanded polystyrene (EPS) has an R-value of about R-3.8. Utilize mastic sealant and metal tape rather than duct tape. Contrary to its name, duct tape does not provide a better seal, and it degrades rapidly.
Other Insulation Considerations
As is the case with insulation in other parts of your house, you need to regularly check and also maintain the insulation on your ductwork. If the insulation around your vent hood ductwork becomes waterlogged due to a roof leak and the same issue, the effectiveness of insulation will be compromised. And if the insulation is compromised, it can make a favorable environment that invites moisture issues inside the ducts. Check the insulation around your ducts minimum once a year and replace any that has become compromised.
It is best if your kitchen exhaust fan discharges to the outdoors and do not exhaust into the attic and soffits or crawl space. If the run is long, you will require a big fan, so check with a professional. The joints should be sealed, and if the duct runs through an unheated space, they need to be insulated. How do you seal a range hood duct? If the gaps are larger than 1”, they may be sealed from the attic side with air-blocking material like rigid foam that’s cut to fit and sealed in place with caulk or spray foam. Use caulk, etc. to air seal the vent to the exterior wall.
Regarding this, can I use an insulated flexible duct for the range hood?
As per IRC, the duct must be made from galvanized steel, stainless steel, and copper. It must have a smooth interior, and be airtight. This means you’re not going to use a flexible product for this application, particularly that flexible plastic crap. Instead, you will use a rigid duct like this.
How do you insulate a duct?
A good practice is to wrap the whole duct with R-3 to R-8 insulation, but, if nothing else, you need to at least wrap the six ft. of the duct inside the termination point, which is where condensation is probably to happen. Keep the vent lower and run the insulation over the duct.