Condensation on Duct work in basement

I have an unfinished partial basement in a 1/5 story house and every summer when I turn on the a/c, the ductwork in the basement drips water all over the place. I guess I need to insulation. I don't know if this causes standing water in the ducts, but it doesn't sound good. Maybe I should have all the ductwork replaced, or is it maybe more economical to have the ductwork cleaned, retaped & insulated? None of the ductwork has any vent openings to heat/cool the basement. I have a dehumidifier in the basement running almost all the time and a humidifier installed on the ductwork and don't even know if it works. Also, have a electronic air filter on furnace.
Thanks for any suggestions.

 

You need to wrap the duct if you are not going to put vents down their!

 

Airman, Thanks for your advice.

 

They make wrap around insulation for the duct. Just make sure you insulate the flange where it wyes out to the floor vents. Failure to do this will still condense water on this part of the duct, and the water will run down the vent and soak the insulaltion that you installed. The most common way to insulate this final 18" is to paint on insulating mastic.

 

I have an unfinished partial basement in a 1/5 story house and every summer when I turn on the a/c, the ductwork in the basement drips water all over the place
Just what do you have there? I dont see why you dont have a small register in the duct work and a return also. This should stop it. Is there any earth over in the other part??? Or just what do you have there. If you put insulation on the duct what will you do in the winter???

ED

 

I would think you would want the duct work insulated for the winter also. If the duct work is in an unheated basement/crawlspace, not having it insulated means you are losing heat to the basement/crawlspace, which is uninhabited. This can only raise your heating (and cooling) costs.

It is the same as not having your floors insulated above a non-heated/air conditioned space.

 

arkayassoc
We seal the crawl space ,insulation on the walls and just in the joist space up on the sill plate.Poly on the ground. Also put registers in the duct work down in the crawl space. Water pipes dont freeze. It all works as a big heat sink for you. In test homes they saved 12% over the insulation in the floor on fuel cost.
Still not sure just what he has down there?????

ED