Owners of private houses often need to heat the pipe in winter. It can be a water or sewer pipe. Harsh winters often cause them to fail due to the fact that abnormally low temperatures lead to freezing of the liquid inside. Traditional solutions (standard insulation and sub-freezing laying) do not help. To solve this problem, there are electric cables of a special type - heating.
You can heat a pipe using two types of cable: resistive or self-regulating. Resistive heating cables have a constant resistance along their entire length, therefore their heating capacity is also the same throughout their entire length. Structurally, this cable is made of one or two cores enclosed in an insulating sheath. From above it is covered with a screen. When designing a system based on this cable, it must be taken into account thatit cannot be cut - it will stop generating heat. In order to be able to somehow choose the required length, manufacturers produce it in sections of different lengths. The heating system also includes temperature sensors and thermostats. Single-core resistive cables must be connected to the power supply on both sides, two-core cables on one side.
The lack of a heating system on a resistive cable is due to the peculiarity of its design. Constant resistance and the same amount of heat generated can lead to overheating and failure. Therefore, if you decide to heat the pipe using such a system, you will need to ensure that debris or leaves do not accumulate above the place where the cable is laid, there are no objects standing - this can lead to overheating and failure of the system.
Self-regulating heating cable can change the resistance in each individual section depending on the ambient temperature. In practice, this means that the colder it is, the more heat is released. Moreover, the change in resistance (and hence the amount of heat generated) occurs automatically and can be different at two adjacent points. For example, in some place above the pipe, ice formed. In this place, the heat generation will be greater than where the temperature is higher. Pipeline heating system using
self-regulating cable allows you to make the most efficient use of electricity. She is highefficiency 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 the relatively high price. But ease of use and energy savings will quickly pay for themselves.
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 placed inside the pipes or outside. Each of the methods has both advantages and disadvantages. There are also several laying methods: a snake, a spiral, several parallel lines. How exactly to lay the cable in order to heat the pipe as efficiently as possible can be suggested by an experienced craftsman. 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 electricity you will spend on heating.
