Owners of private houses in winter often need to heat the pipe. It can be a water or sewer pipe. Severe winters often cause them to fail due to the fact that abnormally low temperatures lead to freezing of the fluid inside. Traditional solutions (standard insulation and laying below the freezing point) do not help. To solve this problem, there are electric cables of a special type - heating.
The pipe can be
heated using two types of cable: resistive or self-regulating. Resistive heating cables have constant resistance along the entire length, therefore their heating ability is also the same over the entire length. Structurally, this cable is made of one or two cores enclosed in an insulating sheath. Above it is covered with a screen. When calculating a system based on this cable, it must be taken into account that it cannot be cut - it will cease to produce heat. In order to somehow be able to choose the required length, manufacturers produce it in sections of different lengths. The heating system also includes temperature sensors and temperature controllers. Single-core resistive cables must be connected to the power source on both sides, two-core - on one.
The disadvantage of the heating system on the
resistive cable is due to the peculiarity of its design. Constant resistance and the same amount of heat can lead to overheating and damage. Therefore, if you decide to heat the pipe using such a system, you will need to make sure that no debris or leaves accumulate over the place where the cable is laid, objects are not standing - this can lead to overheating and system failure.
Self-regulating heating cable can change the resistance in each individual section depending on the ambient temperature. In practice, this means that the colder the more heat is released. Moreover, the change in resistance (and hence the amount of heat generated) occurs in automatic mode and can be different at two adjacent points. For example, in some place above the pipe ice formed. At this point, the heat generation will be greater than where the temperature is higher. Pipeline heating system using
self-regulating cable allows the most efficient use of electricity. It is highly efficient and reliable, does not require special care and is not prone to breakage. The only thing that limits the use of such a cable is the relatively high price. But ease of use and energy savings will quickly recoup costs.
Whatever wire you choose for heating pipes, you need to decide where and how it will be located. The thing is that the heating cable can be located inside the pipes or outside. Each of the methods has both advantages and disadvantages. There are also several ways of laying: a snake, a spiral, several parallel lines. How to lay the cable in order to heat the pipe as efficiently as possible, an experienced master can tell. By the way, the use of a heating cable does not mean that there is no need to arrange high-quality thermal insulation: the better you make it, the less energy will be spent on heating.