Ventilation Duct Insulation

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Indoor temperature has a significant impact on the comfort and performance of a building’s occupants, whether in a commercial, residential or leisure environment.

Modern HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) units control the interior climate – and effective, high-quality duct insulation helps maintain desired airflow temperature throughout the building.

As the air in the ducts travels throughout the complete building, it passes many levels without heating or cooling available, causing an unwanted temperature rise or drop.

Quality insulation products prevent energy loss should cold air start to heat up, or hot air begin to cool down, when travelling from the unit to its destination. They help retain indoor comfort, without using excess energy to reheat or cool the air.

Learn more about ventilation insulation – and how ROCKWOOL solutions can boost the energy efficiency of your systems and buildings.

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Ventilation Duct Insulation Products

DuctWrap

Ductwrap is a foil faced mat designed for circular ducts, providing thermal insulation of cold water storage, feed and expansion tanks.

DuctSlab

ROCKWOOL DuctSlab can provide the thermal insulation to rectangular ductwork, HVAC systems as well as cold water storage, feed and expansion tanks. This solution is acoustically sound absorbent and A1 non-combustible to deliver peace of mind.

HVAC

DuoDuct

The insulation of external duct systems carrying hot or cold air can be a challenge for specifiers, particularly when seeking a product that is durable, fire resilient and compatible with common external finishes. ROCKWOOL DuoDuct slab has been designed specifically to deliver thermal performance without compromising on fire safety, offering application enhancements over a building’s lifetime.

Why do we need ventilation duct insulation?

HVAC units are designed to maximise comfort in large, modern constructions, including:

Industrial – energy plants, warehouses, data centres and other buildings where ventilation units are installed
Commercial – sports centres, offices and leisure
Residential – apartment blocks
Essential services – hospitals and airports

This can require a great deal of energy. But effective use of insulation results in lower consumption levels, leading to a more cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable constructions¹.

Our duct insulation products can be used for rectangular and circular ventilation ducts operating within a temperature range of 12°C to 230°C.They reduce the energy required to keep hot and cold air flowing at the optimum temperature.

As ducts travel throughout buildings and transport hot air, this can also pose a fire risk. Insulating ventilation ducts with fire resilient stone wool improves fire safety.

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Calculator and savings

Insulation of ventilation ducts can lead to significant savings.

Generally, insulating HVAC applications can deliver a return on investment within three years – helping create a far more cost-efficient building.

The amount of insulation required depends on the size and shape of your ventilation ducts, the ideal temperature and other environmental factors.

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Why choose ROCKWOOL solutions?

Our range of circular and rectangular duct insulation products are available to suit almost every kind of building and HVAC system. This includes aluminium foil faced slabs and roll.

Stone wool is dimensionally stable – meaning our products don’t shrink or wear out under the influence of extreme temperatures. This means they maintain the same performance throughout the building’s lifetime. In addition, gaps in insulation joints do not occur over time, ensuring continuity of thermal performance over the lifetime of the installation.

Due to the natural properties of stone wool, additional fire resilience and acoustic absorption properties help create a quieter and safer environment too.

Benefits of ROCKWOOL solutions include²:

Fire resilience
Temperature maintenance
Acoustic dampening
Thermal properties
Circularity

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Due to optimal co-operation with production departments, we can guarantee the highest quality available. We understand our clients and markets and know which performance and requirements must be met.

Rob Kooiker

ROCKWOOL Group Product Manager

Case studies

The challenge

The Minerva Primary Academy’s ventilation system incorporates an extensive ductwork system featuring both internal circular and external rectangular sections.

To ensure optimum performance for the system, external ductwork sections require effective insulation to protect them from changes in the ambient temperature.

The solution

ROCKWOOL DuoDuct and ROCKWOOL DuctWrap was specified for Minerva Primary Academy. ROCKWOOL DuoDuct is a non-combustible stone wool slab which provides thermal insulation to external ducts carrying warm air, chilled air or dual-purpose duct systems. The insulation is designed for use with rectangular external ducts and is made using robust ROCKWOOL Dual-Density technology.

Internal ductwork was insulated with ROCKWOOL Ductwrap, a lightweight and flexible thermal insulation roll faced with reinforced aluminium foil. Like DuoDuct, ROCKWOOL Ductwrap is acoustically absorbent and A1 non-combustible for complete peace of mind, ensuring all the relevant project requirements were comfortably achieved.

The results

“We had some tricky areas to insulate externally, especially around the air handling unit. I was impressed with how easy the DuoDuct was to install. It’s a robust, hard-wearing product but it’s a doddle to cut with a handsaw. As such, it was straight-forward to make all our cuts and square up and fix all the individual DuoDuct sections”

Daniel Rowan, DPR Thermal

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We had some tricky areas to insulate externally, especially around the air handling unit. I was impressed with how easy the DuoDuct was to install. It’s a robust, hard-wearing product but it’s a doddle to cut with a handsaw. As such, it was straight-forward to make all our cuts and square up and fix all the individual DuoDuct sections

Daniel Rowan

DPR Thermal

Installation

Aluminium foil faced rolls are suitable for circular ductwork and easily installed by wrapping around the ventilation ducts and sealing any joints with aluminium tape – galvanised wire mesh netting can be used to provide additional support.

Key tips³:

Use a registered installer – professional training helps ensure the best installation to help your HVAC systems operate as efficiently as possible.
Choose the right product – duct insulation can be applied to rectangular and circular ducts, with varying thicknesses for different requirements.
Remember fire safety – if the ventilation duct must be insulated and also perform a certain level of fire resistance, have a look at our engineered, developed and tested solutions for fire rated ducts.