How to effectively heat a pipe in the winter

Owners of private houses in winter often have a need to heat the pipe. This can be a water pipe or a sewer pipe. Severe winters often cause their failure due to the fact that abnormally low temperatures lead to freezing of the liquid inside. Traditional solutions (standard insulation and gasket 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 a constant resistance along the entire length, because their heating capacity is also the same over the entire length. Structurally, this cable is made of one or two cores, enclosed in an insulating jacket. Above it is covered with a screen. When calculating the system based on this cable, it must be taken into account that it can not be cut - it will cease to produce heat. In order to be able to somehow choose the required length, the manufacturers produce it with sections of different lengths. The heating system also includes thermal sensors and temperature controllers. Single-core resistive cables must be connected to the power supply on both sides, two-core cables must be connected to 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 produced can lead to overheating and breakage. Therefore, if you decide to heat a pipe with such a system, you will need to ensure that no objects or garbage accumulate above the place where the cable is laid, garbage or leaves accumulate, which can lead to overheating and system failure.

The 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 released) occurs in an automatic mode and can be different in two adjacent points. For example, in some place over the pipe formed ice. At this point, heat generation will be greater than where the temperature is higher. Heating system of the pipeline using Self-regulating cable allows you to make the most efficient use of electricity. It is characterized by high efficiency and reliability, does not require special care and is not prone to breakage. The only thing that limits the use of such a cable is a relatively high price. But the convenience of operation and the saving of electricity will quickly pay back costs.

Whichever wire for heating the pipes you choose, you need to decide on where and how it will be located. The thing is that the heating cable can be placed inside the pipes or outside. Each of the ways has both advantages and disadvantages. There are also several ways of laying: a snake, a spiral, several parallel lines. How to lay the cable to maximally heat the pipe, can tell an experienced master. 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 do it, the less energy you spend on heating.