It’s not uncommon for parts of the wall anywhere in your home to get hot or too hot to touch.
The heat can sometimes build up to the point of fear of a fire outbreak.
Fortunately, this phenomenon rarely ends in a home fire, but don’t expect it to go away on its own.
so what does it mean if the bedroom wall is warm or hot to the touch?
A myriad of factors have been attributed to it, including underlying problems with the AC lines.
The job of your air conditioning system is to regulate the indoor temperature by removing heat from your space and even regulating humidity.
To accomplish this, it is serviced by an extensive network of ducts that run from the outside of the house to specific rooms.
The ducts are usually insulated and installed in the ceiling, but some houses have them in the walls.
if a conduit is punctured, the area of the wall near that point will feel hot (more on this later).
However, the ductwork isn’t the only culprit; You’ll need to test just about anything that can generate heat in your home.
what’s behind the wall?
The first question you should ask yourself should be what is behind the ball?
electric?
hot water tank?
hot water pipes?
You can guess that something hot behind or inside the wall is responsible for the hot spot. me
Is the wall always hot? only at specific times?
you need more information to get to the bottom of it all.
seek professional help
Secondly, you should seek help from as many professionals as possible: this could be an insulation expert, an electrician, or someone with experience in energy auditing.
The most likely cause could be an electrical problem in the wall, but there are many other possible causes. you can only continue after you have ruled out electrical problems.
once you are 100% sure that you do not have electrical problems in that wall, you can continue to investigate the problem with the help of an appropriate professional.
Your utility company will likely provide professional assistance in the event of a malfunction.
five possible causes of a hot wall
these are the possible causes of a hot wall:
1. leaking hot water pipe
If the hot water pipes run through the wall of your bedroom on the way to the bathroom or kitchen, they are probably starting to leak or have gotten too hot to feel under the wall.
the difference is that the leak is usually manifested by a wet spot on the wall; normal overheating in water pipes just makes the wall feel hot but doesn’t create a wet spot.
In either case, you’ll need to hire a professional to tear up the foundation or wall to get to the affected pipes.
2. air conditioning system and heating ducts
If heating ducts run through the walls of your bedroom, you are more likely to experience the “hot wall” phenomenon.
Do you find the sleeves of your shirts warm on one side?
if you can feel it by touching the bedroom wall and you know that the heating ducts are installed somewhere in this wall (just in case, because these ducts are usually installed in the ceiling), then it is the most likely cause.
To establish if the heating ducts are the source, turn off your AC machine and wait about an hour.
If the heat persists even after the air conditioner has been turned off, the heating ducts are certainly not the cause.
If the entire duct line is involved, the hot spot would extend along the entire length of the pipe, not just at one point.
an isolated hot spot on the wall is an indicator that the pipe is leaking at one point.
there is a possibility that the ducts are slightly warped or perforated at the same point where it touches the drywall.
Just as bad, there may be a joint somewhere in the drywall that wasn’t tight enough after installation.
the fault could be in the joint, e.g. a leak, but the only method you could use to really tell is to cut through the drywall and check the duct.
Repairing the drywall at the point where the stud cavity fills with conduit can be a bit tricky, since you can’t use wood to cover the hole. this sounds like something you’d hire a professional to do.
3. hot electrical wires
Electrical wiring can get hot behind walls and can end up creating a hot spot in the wall.
There are many reasons electrical cords can become hot and cause concern, but the most common cause is improper grounding.
voltage spikes are common and on any circuit that has not been properly grounded, the extra energy not routed tends to dissipate as thermal energy and can cause the wiring in the house to become very hot at one point or in the whole circuit.
Hot spots induced by electrical wiring in walls are some of the easiest to fix, but can be the most expensive.
If you ever determine, with the help of a qualified electrician, that your electrical wiring is responsible for the problem, all you need to do is open up the wall, make changes to the wiring, and then cover the spot. .
the problem is that you could be forced to make a significant rewiring in the affected area or even add more circuits to avoid overloading the circuit which can cause overheating.
Overheating of electrical cables does not happen often. still, in the unlikely event that it does happen, the fuse will have blown by the time you feel the heat on the wall.
4. check your appliances
If your bedroom wall feels hot but you have a kitchen on the other side, the heat is likely coming from an appliance in that room.
so check if one of your kitchen equipment is behind the problem.
Evaluate your toasters, ranges, ovens, dishwashers, freezer/refrigerator, water heaters and any other equipment that uses coils, especially if they are installed too close to your bedroom wall.
Note that non-kitchen appliances may also be responsible, it just depends on whether they are close enough to the wall to dissipate heat into it.
check your vacuum cleaners, televisions, washing machines, heaters, computers, etc.
appliance-induced overheating is the easiest to correct, since it does not involve changes to the wall.
simply go to the opposite room, change or reposition the overheating fixture and the wall will stop overheating.
5. the chimney line
chimneys are often installed to go through the wall to the ceiling.
Forget kitchen fireplaces, which are typically more elaborate (with a range hood attached and such), fireplace mantels are the easiest to forget they ever existed.
then you probably won’t immediately suspect a fireplace’s chimney line to be the cause, especially if your bedroom and living room share a wall.
some homes feature traditional fireplaces with large chimney hoods.
others feature single skin walls sandwiched between attached living spaces with a 4″ (and 20 foot high) wall – one end of the two upper floor joists of the living space is inserted into it plus the roof straps.
You will need to hire a professional to go deeper into the attic and confirm the thickness of the partition wall.
chimney lines are difficult to relocate, so you may want to leave that part of the wall out.
related: what does it mean when the kitchen floor is warm to the touch?
in a nutshell
So what does it mean when the bedroom wall is warm or hot to the touch? It can be the result of a number of issues, including underlying problems with your AC lines. first you need to find out what is installed on the wall or behind the wall in the opposite room. second, you should seek help from as many professionals as possible: this could be an insulation expert, an electrician, or someone with experience in energy auditing.
could be a leaky hot water pipe.
If the hot water pipes run through the wall of your bedroom on the way to the bathroom or kitchen, they are probably starting to leak or have gotten too hot to feel under the wall.
Does your air conditioning system duct run through the wall instead of the ceiling?
If heating ducts run through the walls of your bedroom, you are more likely to experience the “hot wall” phenomenon.
To establish if the heating ducts are the source, turn off your AC machine and wait about an hour.
If the heat persists even after the air conditioner has been turned off, the heating ducts are certainly not the cause.
Or maybe your electrical wires are overheating.
There are many reasons electrical cords can become hot and cause concern, but the most common cause is improper grounding.
voltage spikes are common and on any circuit that has not been properly grounded, the extra energy not routed tends to dissipate as thermal energy and can cause the wiring in the house to become very hot at one point or in the whole circuit.
You may want to review your kitchen appliances and home equipment. Evaluate appliances such as toasters, stoves, ovens, dishwashers, freezer/refrigerators, and water heaters.
Related: How Can You Tell Which Manufactured Home Walls Are Load Bearing?
