Heat tape or electric trace heating is a heating system that is used for heating pipes. It consists of a long electrical heating element that is run along the length of a pipe. The pipe is covered using thermal installation to maintain the heat. A couple of recent technological advances are considering gradually phasing out the traditional heat tape to replace it with technologies that are more efficient.
The system of heat tape works through checking and regulating its output based on its surrounding environment and on the user’s requirements. Through modifying the power output of the system to balance the changes in temperature, it is able to minimize energy wasted and retain the desired temperature.
The most common uses of heat tape include maintaining the temperatures of pipes, which would include the prevention of pipe-freeze; under floor heating; prevention of snow and ice; and anti-condensation. Some residential applications for heat tape would include protecting water pipes from freezing and the positioning on gutters or roofs to melt ice in winter. When heat tape is used together with the insulation of common foam pipe, the insulation would often melt so some precautions should be done to prevent this from happening.
Some industrial uses of heat tape are for use in oil refineries and chemical factories. For instance, was is a kind of material that would start solidifying in temperatures below 70 degrees Celsius, which is generally higher that the surrounding air temperature. So, the pipeline should be supplied with an external heat source so that the pipe and materials inside it are kept heated. This can also be achieved through the use of thin steam pipes rather than integrating an electrical heating element, however it will be more prone to leaks and others.
There are also laboratory uses for heat tape. Material science researchers use heat tape to isotropically heat a sample. They could use a heat tape together with a variac to control the delivered heat energy. This is an efficient way of gradually heating the object to be able to measure some thermodynamic properties like thermal expansion.
Here are some benefits of heat tape:
Significant energy savings: Since systems that use heat tape adjust the output instead of supplying a consistent level, you would be able to save a lot of energy. You can save up to 75 percent on the gutters’ and drainpipes’ frost protection, 80 percent on the pipes’ frost protection, 80 percent on frost and snow melting and 50 percent on the maintenance of hot water temperature.
Versatility and ease of installation: Technologies used in heat tape are flexible in the sense that regardless of the situation or application you require, a heat tape system can be designed and made to fit. Cables may also be fine-tuned upon installation.
Reliability and minimal maintenance: Heat tape systems are usually designed to last 20 years and floor heating cables do not emit any electric magnetic fields in operation.
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