So you have a cold room that the heat from the wood stove just don’t reach & you are woried about that cold water pipe freezing up. Fret not! Electric heat tape with fiberglass insulation & plastic vapor barrier is the answer.

Here is how to pick the type of heat tape that you want to use & how to install it yourself & some tips on saving a lot of money doing it.

FIRST, MEASURE YOUR PIPE FOR ITS DIAMETER AND ITS LENGTH. TAKE INTO ACCOUNT IF YOU WILL BE WRAPPING THE NEED MORE TAPE TO WRAP IT AROUND">TAPE OR JUST A STRAIGHT RUN OF TAPE.
TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ANY VALVES OR TEES OR WATER METERS THAT YOU NEED TO PROTECT FROM FREEZING AND SIZE THE LENGTH OF TAPE ACCORDINGLY.

There are charts provided by the mfg to help you determine how many ft of heating tape or heating cable you will need.

TYPES OF HEAT TAPE. heating cable is wire meshed, no thermostat,self regulating temp, 3 wt /ft Heat tape is vynal & has a thermostat.7wt/ft.

1. Expensive wire mesh heat cable, no thermostat, self regulating due to varing resistance of the cable with tempurartue changes, comes in 100 ft or 400ft rolls and can be custom cut to the length that you desire. 3 watts per foot, 120 volts ac or 240 volts ac, your choice. You install the plug & the termination end cap, yourself or pay for professional installation. Advantages: Can be custom cut to length. Can be criss crossed over itself & wound around the pipe or valve. The 3 watts per foot does not produce enough heat to damage the cable should the cable cross or touch itself, but because of the low heat or watts per foot, the cable must be well sprial wrapped about the pipe or valve. This same sprial wrap lends itself to easly protecting odd shaped valves ,tees, water meters and etc. Can be used to protect HOT WATER PIPES where there is danger of the hot water pipe freezing between hot water flowing times. Disadvantage: High Cost —-$300.oo per 100 ft or $3.oo/foot sold only in 100 ft rolls. Sometimes you can find it on the internet for $200.oo for a 100 ft roll. You can sometimes order it custom cut to your specified length. 2. Low cost vynal heat tape. Costs $38.oo for 30 feet. or about $1.27 a foot. 7 watts per foot. Comes in 9 ft ,12 ft 18 ft ,26 ft 30 ft, 40 ft 60 ft lengths. Usually, stores only stock 9ft,12ft.18 ft,26 ft, & 30 ft lengths. The 40 ft and 60 ft sizes must be ordered in. This tape CAN NOT BE CUT. If the tape is cut shorter, it will over heat & burn out. Advantages: Low cost, tape can be run straight along bottom of pipe without sprial wrapping and in fact. mfg warns against tape touching itself or crossing over itself or being out of heat conduction contact with the pipe at any point whatsoever. This is because the 7 watts per foot can produce a high heat, 155 deg. F to be exact, if the heat tape is not in thermal heat transfer contact with a COLD WATER FILLED PIPE at all times.

The tape relies on the pipe FULL OF COLD WATER to transfer away enough heat, fast enough, so that the heat tape stays at about 98 degees. The heat tape is designed to take up to 155 deg & PREHAPS 20 deg more, prehaps not.

What leads me to say this is that the heat tape is affixed to the pipe with standard electrical tape that is rated to melt at 176 deg. F

The instructions say to tape the heat tape to the pipe every 6 inches, but do not allow any sags
where the tape is not touching the pipe. The tape needs to touch the pipe to transfer the heat so that the heat tape does not overheat & burn out. If necessary, use more electric tape to affix the heat tape to the pipe.

A straight run of heating tape is way easier to install than sprial wraps around a pipe, but you may end up ,at the end of a pipe run, with more heat tape length that pipe length. Then you must spiral wrap the heat tape BUT NEVER ALLOW THE HEAT TAPE TO EVER TOUCH ITSELF. Keep at least 1/2 inch between the wraps of tape & more if you can manage it, but never have any portion of the heat tape not touching a pipe filled with water.
A empty pipe can not sink off enough heat to keep the heat tape from melting.

Application Tape

They sell application tape for $6.98 a roll. It says “warning electrically heated pipe” “danger of electrical shock”

Application Tape is .50 cents a roll electrical tape in a different color with a warning printed on it. If that is worth
$6.50 more per shorter roll to you, then buy some. Only a good idea if you have childern or idiots roaming around.

TRICKS & TIPS FOR INSTALLING VYNAL HEAT TAPE

THE THERMOSTAT will turn power on at 38 deg F & power off at 45 deg F The round black cap (about 2/3 inch in diameter ) is the sensor & must touch the pipe. electrical tape is used to mount the thermostat to the pipe & the fiberglass pipe wrap insulation goes over the thermostat as well as the heat tape, the pipe & any valves or tees
that the heat tape touches.

If you sprial the heat tape to take up extra length of heat tape at the end run of an installation, DO NOT INSULATE
THE SPIRAL WRAPPED PORTION OF THE HEAT TAPE as that area will be plenty hot enough without insulation.

The heat tape should not be within 1/2 inch of any combustable material. The heat tape must not go through a hole in the wall, even to follow the pipe because it will get too hot, may melt and /or cause a fire.

If your pipe goes through a hole in the wall, you will have to use two short heat tapes, one on each side of the wall
& they must be sized to terminate 1 inch short of the wall hole .

OVERLAPS OF HEAT TAPE ENDS

If you are running two short heat tapes, one from each direction, they can overlap on the pipe for no more that 3 feet & must be affixed to opposite sides of the pipe. (one on the top & one on the bottom.)

On the job I reciently finished,I had spirials on each end to take up extra heat tape & had the thermostats meet in the middle of the pipe so that only 1 inch of pipe was unheated by the heat tape.

You can have up to 3 inch of pipe that does not have heat tape touching it if it is fiberglass insulated. The heat will conduct through the copper or steel.

USE ONLY FIBERGLASS PIPE WRAP OF 1/2 INCH MAXIMUM THICKNESS & WRAP THE FIBERGLASS SO THAT THERE IS 1/2 INCH OF OVERLAY ON THE WRAP.

The reason is that foam pipe insulation will melt from the heat of the vynal heat tape & that fiberglass insulation is fire resistant. If you put more than 1/2 inch thickness of fiberglass insulation, the vynal heat tape will get too hot & melt & then short circuit & burn open.

The fiberglass pipe wrap can be temporarly fixed to the pipe & heat tape with a small piece (2 inch x 3 inch) of duct tape, to get the wrap started & to hold the completed wrap while you use string to permanetly tie it into position. The fiberglass wrap is cut into 4 ft lengths to make the wrapping easier. A four ft length of fiberglass will wrap up 2 ft of 1/2 inch pipe.

PLASTIC PIPES AND HOSES.

You may someday well find yourself in the position of having to shut off all the water lines in a partially vacant building while having to supply water to one remaining tennant who is only heating just his area with the rest of the building cold.

You can only use CPVC PLASTIC WATER PIPE or 190 DEG RATED INDUSTRIAL RUBBER HOSE or WASHING MACHINE INLET HOSE which is rated 190 deg.

You can not use pvc water pipe because it does not have the temp rating and will fail. You can not use ordinary garden hose, regardless of price, because it does not have the 190 deg temp rating and will melt or bulge & burst or leak.

CPVC is rated for hot water & is your cheapest option at $3.58 for 10 ft. Transition couplings from CPVC to copper or iron pipe are available at any plumbing supply.

I used a garden valve at the water meter, after cutting open the cold water line to the rest of the building & attached a washing machine hose from it to a 40 ft run of cpvc then another washing machine hose & another garden valve to connect to the tennant’s cold water line just before it went through his wall into the heated section of the building.

SPECIAL TRICKS FOR PLASTIC CPVC TUBING & HIGH TEMP WATER HOSES

Sprial wrap the plastic pipe or high temp water hose with 3 inch wide strips of aluminum foil about 3 or 4 ft long.
Use electrical tape to start wraps and end wraps. Affix the heat tape to the bottom of the pipe or hose that has been wrapped in aluminum foil. USE A BETTER GRADE OF ALUMINIUM FOIL BECAUSE IT IS EASIER TO WORK WITH AND WON’T TEAR AS MUCH as the thin stuff.

The aluminum foil makes the plastic pipe or hose like a copper pipe in as far heat conduction matters. The heat tape is able to transfer its heat to the aluminum which encircles the plastic or rubber hose & ends up warming the hose from all around. The heat tape is put at the bottom of the pipe because heat rises.

NO ELECTRICAL TAPE SHOULD EVER BE BETWEEN THE HEAT TAPE AND THE PIPE OR THE ALUMINUM FOIL BECAUSE THE ELECTRICAL TAPE WILL STOP HEAT CONDUCTION.

PLASTIC PIPES & HOSES MUST BE FULL OF WATER BEFORE POWER IS APPLIED TO THE HEAT TAPE OR ELSE THEY COULD MELT IF THEY ARE EMPTY.

Please keep in mind that if you spiral vynal heat tape that the mfg says not to spiral because the mfg is afraid of you letting the tape touch itself, that you need to keep at least 1/2 inch minimum & much more, if possible, between loops of heat tape & do not insulate that area because it is already hot enough without insulation.

never cross or let vynal heat tape touch itself or let vynal heat tape not be in thermal contact with a pipe full of water.

If you decide to spiral the whole pipe, do not insulate it at all as it is already hot enough.

Keep in mind to keep 1/2 inch from any combustable material and use a ground fault circuit interupt plug to provide power to the heat tape. GFCI OUTLET

The ground fault circuit interupt, GFCI plug will trip the circuit open (no Juice) should any electricity flow down the ground wire. You should use a 3 wire cord, properly grounded into a 3 prong outlet. Ground is the green wire, neutral is the white wire, both the green & white wires should be connected together inside the breaker box and black is the hot wire carring 110vac juice.

If you have a fuse box beware of the wiring because someone may have reversed the black & white wires & there may not be a ground wire at all. This is sub standard old style wiring not up to modern code so if you have that, you need to call an electrician or buy a copy of the wiring code book at home depot or lowes which will explain step by step about wiring houses.

It is about 80 pages of reading but 1/40th the price of an electrician. That is how I learned & unelse you are more stupid than me, that is how you can also learn. I been doing all my own wiring for 40 years now.

A cheaper way out that is not as good as a ground fault circuit interuptor is to plug the heat tape into a computer surge protector. You may not be grounded but at least you will be fused for 10 amps.

a 30 foot heat tape at 7 watts /ft =210watts. 210 watts/120volts=1.75amps roughly equal to 2 -100watt incadesant bulbs.

60ft x7 wt=420wt, 420wt/120v=3.5 amps

If you can possibally manage it, I highly recommend the ground fault circuit interuptor because of the possibility of water from the pipes or the burn out of an improperly installed heat tape. The surge protector is better than nothing but the gfci is the proper thing & to be really safe you should plug the surge protector into a ground fault circuit interupter.Suppy the power from the gfci through the surge protector fused @10 amp to the heat tape.

The life span of a properly installed heat tape is 4 to 6 years and it shoud be unplugged in the spring april and not plugged in again until oct.

I don’t know about the life span of the mesh heating cable as I did not study it much after i determined that I could do it hundereds of dollars cheaper with vynal heat tape.

Your installation might be different and you might find the mesh heat cable more suited to your situation & your wallet. My installation is not intended for more that 2 years,at least ,I hope its rented in 2 years.