Electric Trace Heating

Welcome to the Cable Service Electric Trace Heating Microsite

LATEST OFFER - Easy Trace Kits

EASY TRACE KITS are the latest addition to the extensive range of Trace Heating tapes and accessories available from the Cable Services Group. These kits make protecting your pipes from freezing this winter both easy and affordable. Prices starting from £27.50

EASY TRACE offers a connect and go system. Available in pre-terminated lengths of 3M, 6M, 10M and 12M (other metre lengths up to 9M available on request), and supplied complete with:

• Pre-terminated thermostat and end seal
• Fixing tape
• Warning labels

These 240V, 10W / M kits are an easily installed and cost effective way of providing frost protection for pipes in all domestic and small commercial applications. (Please note that your pipe work still requires insulation).

Contact your Cable Services Area Sales Manager or local Cable Services / Smith Electrical branch for further information.

Whether your the foreman of a building site or the supplier of portable on-site buildings, Cable Services have a wide range of trace heating product solutions, to help protect against the freezing of pipes.

• Our kits make protecting your pipes from freezing this winter both easy and affordable.
• Helps reduces valuable work downtime.
• Self regulating systems.
• All types of commercial applications.

Don’t get caught out this winter, contact Cable Services for your trace heating solution.

Cable Services started distributing the Raychem range of self regulating Trace Heating cables in the late seventies and have over the years acquired a wide expertise in the installation of the whole range of nVent Trace Heating products.

Our vast experience coupled with stocks unequalled anywhere in the UK makes Cable Services the only choice for Trace Heating materials. We are distridutors and stockists of a wide range of electric trace heating products which are listed on our main website.

This micro site is a resource for specific manufacturers information on the range of trace heating cables we supply and provides in depth installation guidelines and pipe heat loss figures.

Ring our experienced sales staff on the numbers listed or use the trace heating quotation fax back form at the bottom of this page to send us details of your requirements. An immediate response is our commitment.

What is Electric Trace Heating

Electric trace heating is a system used to maintain or raise the temperature of pipes and vessels. Trace heating takes the form of an electrical heating element run in physical contact along the length of a pipe. The pipe must then be covered with thermal insulation to retain heat losses from the pipe. Heat generated by the element then maintains the temperature of the pipe. Trace heating may be used to protect pipes from freezing, or to maintain process temperatures for piping that must transport substances that solidify at ambient temperatures. Electric trace heating cables are an alternative to steam trace heating where steam is not available or unwanted. Other commonly known names are electric heat tracing, heat tape or surface heating.

Source: wikipedia

Common Uses

Freeze protection: Every pipe or vessel is subject to heat loss when its temperature is greater than ambient temperature. Thermal insulation reduces the heat loss but does not eliminate it. Trace heating is used to replace the heat that is lost to atmosphere. If the heat replaced matches the heat lost, temperature will be maintained. An ambient temperature sensor can be used to energize the heating cable before the ambient temperature drops below freezing, 40°F is used as a standard. For example, a 15 mm copper water pipe at 5°C with 25 mm insulation in an ambient temperature of -15°C will lose 4.39 watts per metre. To prevent the pipe from freezing, much thicker insulation could be applied but this is both bulky and expensive. A trace heating system can supply the extra heat to prevent freezing. A thermostat is used to sense the ambient air temperatures and control the trace heating to maintain around 3 to 5°C in the pipe. Typical residential applications for trace heating are the protection of water pipes against freezing.[6] When trace heating is used in conjunction with common foam pipe insulation, the insulation will often melt, and precautions should be taken to avoid this. Use insulation that can be exposed to the elevated temperatures of the heat trace.

Gutter and roof de-icing: Placement of heat trace cable on roofs or in gutters to melt ice during winter months. When used in gutters the cable is NOT meant to keep the gutters free of ice and/or snow. The purpose is to keep a free path for the melted water to get off the roof and down the downspout or drain piping.

Temperature maintenance: Hot water service piping can also be traced, so that a circulating system is not needed to provide hot water at outlets. The combination of trace heating and the correct thermal insulation for the operating ambient temperature maintains a thermal balance where the heat output from the trace heating matches the heat loss from the pipe. Self limiting or regulating heating tapes have been developed and are very successful in this application. A similar principle can be applied to process piping carrying fluids which may congeal at low temperatures, for example, tars or molten sulfur. Hit-temperature trace heating elements can prevent blockage of pipes. Industrial applications for trace heating range from chemical industry, oil refineries, nuclear power plants, food factories. For example, wax is a material which starts to solidify below 70°C which is usually far above the temperature of the surrounding air. Therefore the pipeline must be provided with an external source of heat to prevent the pipe and the material inside it from cooling down. Trace heating can also be done with steam, but this requires a source of steam and may be inconvenient to install and operate. In laboratories, researchers working in the field of materials science use trace heating to heat a sample isotropically. They may use trace heating in conjunction with a variac, so as to control the heat energy delivered. This is an effective means of slowly heating an object to measure thermodynamic properties such as thermal expansion.

Cable Services are distributors and suppliers of the following Trace Heating products:

• nVent Wintergard Commercial Electric Trace Heating

  For frost protection and temperature maintenance.

• nVent HWAT Commercial Electric Trace Heating

  Hot water trace heating for temperature maintenance.

• nVent ICESTOP Commercial Electric Trace Heating

  Frost and snow protection for gutters and downpipes.
  

• nVent Viagard Ramp Commercial Electric Trace Heating

  Self regulating snow and ice melting on paths, ramps, stairs and other access ways

• nVent T2 Electric Underfloor Heating

  T2 Red - 5-15 watts per metre Self Regulating Cable.
  T2 Red - With T2 Reflecta.
  T2 Quicknet - Thin (3mm) Self Adhesive Mat.

• Raychem Flexiclip Electric Electric Trace Heating

  Plug together system for the frost protection of pipes.

• Raychem BTV Industrial Electric Trace Heating Cable

  Self regulating electric trace heating for frost protection in industrial and ‘hazardous area’ situations without steam cleaning.

• Raychem QTVR Industrial Electric Trace Heating Cable

  Self regulating eElectric trace heating for industrial temperature applications up to 110°C, including applications in ‘hazardous areas’ but not steam cleanable.

• Raychem XTR Industrial Electric Trace Heating Cable

  Self Regulating Electric trace heating for process temperature maintenance applications up to 120°C which may be subject to steam cleaning.

• Raychem KTV Industrial Electric Trace Heating Cable

  Self regulating electric trace heating for process control applications up to 150°C which may be subject to steam cleaning.

• Raychem VPL Industrial Electric Trace Heating Cable

  High temperature power limiting electric trace heating cable for frost protection and process temperature maintenance requiring high power output and/or high temperature exposure.