Recently I had a home energy audit done. The auditor said there was quite a bit of air leakage where the furnace stack (a round sheet metal stack) comes into the attic. He said I should seal the by-pass in the attic and "thought" expandable foam would be OK. Anyone know if this could be a fire hazard?
He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is giving off a good deal of heat in the attic - which is evident by the size of the icicles hanging from my eaves. Is there any safe way to insulate a metal furnace stack? Keep in mind - this is a crawl-space sized attic. I've been up there before and it is very hard to move around in. Thanks!

damncold wrote:

Recently I had a home energy audit done. The auditor said there was
quite a bit of air leakage where the furnace stack (a round sheet metal
stack) comes into the attic. He said I should seal the by-pass in the
attic and "thought" expandable foam would be OK. Anyone know if this
could be a fire hazard?
He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic - which is evident by the
size of the icicles hanging from my eaves. Is there any safe way to
insulate a metal furnace stack? Keep in mind - this is a crawl-space
sized attic. I've been up there before and it is very hard to move
around in. Thanks!



Insulating the flue pipe in the attic will have almost ZERO effect
on your energy consumption. Any heat now being lost up there is
being transferred to the roof or whisked out the gable/soffit vents.

Sealing around it to stop air movement from the living space will
be beneficial.

Jim

Speedy Jim wrote:
damncold wrote:

Recently I had a home energy audit done. The auditor said there was
quite a bit of air leakage where the furnace stack (a round sheet metal
stack) comes into the attic. He said I should seal the by-pass in the
attic and "thought" expandable foam would be OK. Anyone know if this
could be a fire hazard?
He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic - which is evident by the
size of the icicles hanging from my eaves. Is there any safe way to
insulate a metal furnace stack? Keep in mind - this is a crawl-space
sized attic. I've been up there before and it is very hard to move
around in. Thanks!



Insulating the flue pipe in the attic will have almost ZERO effect
on your energy consumption. Any heat now being lost up there is
being transferred to the roof or whisked out the gable/soffit vents.

Sealing around it to stop air movement from the living space will
be beneficial.

Jim
You are too speedy, he is talking about loss from
the living space.

George E. Cawthon wrote:

Speedy Jim wrote:

damncold wrote:

Recently I had a home energy audit done. The auditor said there was
quite a bit of air leakage where the furnace stack (a round sheet metal
stack) comes into the attic. He said I should seal the by-pass in the
attic and "thought" expandable foam would be OK. Anyone know if this
could be a fire hazard?
He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic - which is evident by the
size of the icicles hanging from my eaves. Is there any safe way to
insulate a metal furnace stack? Keep in mind - this is a crawl-space
sized attic. I've been up there before and it is very hard to move
around in. Thanks!



Insulating the flue pipe in the attic will have almost ZERO effect
on your energy consumption. Any heat now being lost up there is
being transferred to the roof or whisked out the gable/soffit vents.

Sealing around it to stop air movement from the living space will
be beneficial.

Jim

You are too speedy, he is talking about loss from the living space.


No. There were *two* separate issues. Here is the second one, as
presented by OP:

"He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic "

It being hard to work in the limited crawl space he has,
insulating this sounded like a losing proposition.
Jim

Speedy Jim wrote:
George E. Cawthon wrote:

Speedy Jim wrote:

damncold wrote:

Recently I had a home energy audit done. The auditor said there was
quite a bit of air leakage where the furnace stack (a round sheet metal
stack) comes into the attic. He said I should seal the by-pass in the
attic and "thought" expandable foam would be OK. Anyone know if this
could be a fire hazard?
He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic - which is evident by the
size of the icicles hanging from my eaves. Is there any safe way to
insulate a metal furnace stack? Keep in mind - this is a crawl-space
sized attic. I've been up there before and it is very hard to move
around in. Thanks!



Insulating the flue pipe in the attic will have almost ZERO effect
on your energy consumption. Any heat now being lost up there is
being transferred to the roof or whisked out the gable/soffit vents.

Sealing around it to stop air movement from the living space will
be beneficial.

Jim


You are too speedy, he is talking about loss from the living space.



No. There were *two* separate issues. Here is the second one, as
presented by OP:

"He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic "

It being hard to work in the limited crawl space he has,
insulating this sounded like a losing proposition.
Jim

Ok, I missed that. There is a point in insulating
it. If the attic remains cold he is less likely
to have ice dams form. I'll bet that most of the
heat he see in the attic is from the hole (around
the stack) between the living area and the attic.
So in essence, I agree with you, insulating the
stack in the attic is rather a waste.

Thanks for all the replies. I did make my way up there and yes, the area around the stack is warm and the snow on the roof above it is melted. I could not see well enough to determine how much space there was around the stack. I would like to stop the stack itself from heating the attic. I've checked at some home stores but no one seems really confident if you can put insulation around a stack or not. And if you could, what kind. Any ideas?

"damncold" wrote in message
...

Recently I had a home energy audit done. The auditor said there was
quite a bit of air leakage where the furnace stack (a round sheet metal
stack) comes into the attic. He said I should seal the by-pass in the
attic and "thought" expandable foam would be OK. Anyone know if this
could be a fire hazard?

I'd use fiberglass.

He also pointed out that the furnace stack is not insulated and is
giving off a good deal of heat in the attic - which is evident by the
size of the icicles hanging from my eaves. Is there any safe way to
insulate a metal furnace stack?


Thee is fiberglass insulation made for pipes and stacks. Check with a
plumbing supply house. Comes in about 3' lengths and is curved to fit
pipes.