It was really a shame to place her in the basement but gotta have some heat down there to.The insulated pipe is the air from the blower going into the first floor of my house.That was one of the selling features instead of having the blower blow the air out of the front of the stove your could have it blowing into a 6" duct to a floor register.Insulating it was probably over kill cause of the distance but that's me..lol