Thank you Joed. I experimented this morning by turning off the heat. The wall did cool down. I went to the basement and looked at the furnace location relative to the warm spot on the wall, and the furnace is directly below, with that silver chimney kind of ductwork going up pretty much where the warm spot is on the floor above.

But the warm spot is just about dish-sized--it isn't a warm line going from floor to ceiling the way I would imagine that duct running up the wall to vent out the top of the house or whatever--so, does that mean there is a leak in the duct that's making the warm spot? Should I be worried?

Thanks!

"...does that mean there is a leak in the duct that's making the warm spot? Should I be worried?"

More likely the duct is slightly deformed at that point and touching the drywall or there could even be a joint in the drywall and compound was pushed between the duct and the drywall when the joint was finished.

It could be a joint that is leaking, but the only way to really tell for sure is to cut open the drywall and examine the duct.
Drywall patching were the stud cavity is filled with a duct is slightly more difficult since wood cannot be added to span the opening.

You must clean off half the stud edge to mount the patch onto.

It sounds to me that you're talking about the furnace FLUE ("that silver chimney kind of ductwork") not the warm-air supply ducts (I assume it's a natural gas- or propane-fired furnace). The flue carries the combustion products (i.e., the "exhaust" produced by burning the gas) up and out of the house. With older, lower-efficiency furnaces, the flue can get really hot, although it's required to be double-wall construction (a pipe inside another pipe) when traveling through walls, for safety.

Have you hired an HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) guy to come check it out? That's what I would do.

I'm curious what the outcome was. Care to update us? Thanks.

The outcome is only that I moved the breadbox. We haven't had anyone out to look at the HVAC and it's about number three on the list after the wet floor in the basement and the bad flashing around the chimney. Yeah, it's been a great month!

@mikemr Hi Mike,

I just had this issue within my home and your response saved me hundreds of dollars and worry. My interior wall was warm to the touch and I feared it could be electrical, however I followed your advice and turned the heat off. The wall cooled to the touch right away. Thank you for your presence and input! Your expertise is appreciated.

-Candace

@Candace what did u turned off and how u did? I also have same problem, small portion of wall at my house is getting too hot and i dnt know what might be possible cause of it. plz help m

Hello Hassan. Please start a new thread for your question, instead of posting in a 10 year old dead one. You'll get more and better responses that way (some people ignore old threads). Thanks and good luck!

Where is the finfinal answer to this problem? How did the problem solve? what did you do to stop that heat inside the wall?