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Prevent Freezing Pipes: How to Prevent Water Pipes from Freezing in the Winter — Many types of businesses depend on the proper functioning of pipes to carry out their everyday operations, from petrochemical plants and heavy industry to offices and construction sites. During the winter months maintaining this functionality can become much more difficult when the temperature drops below freezing, with blockages and burst pipes becoming a major problem.
Prevent Freezing Pipes: How to Prevent Water Pipes from Freezing in the Winter
Fortunately, there are a variety of methods suitable for ensuring that this is not the case and that business can carry on uninterrupted, whatever the weather.
Trace Heating
Trace heating is one of the simplest and most effective solutions for frost protecting your pipes. It is accomplished using a series of self-regulating heating cables that run parallel to the pipes. Whereas insulation simply prevents pipes from losing some heat as the ambient temperature drops, trace heating enables the pipe to be maintained at a constant temperature, virtually eliminating the risk of frozen pipes and their devastating consequences.
Modern trace heating uses an electrical heating element in conjunction with an in-built thermostat to ensure that the temperature within the pipe is maintained at a set level. It is a versatile solution as it can be easily cut to size and tailored to requirements.
Electric Underfloor Heating
Electrical underfloor heating is a versatile solution for protecting certain pipe configurations from freezing, and can also be used to prevent freezing of concrete slabs and other materials. On construction sites and on commercial premises, underfloor heating cables can be used to ensure that walkways and other areas remain free of ice.
In instances where the pipes to be protected are located under the floor, this can be a particularly cost-effective method of combining frost protection with ambient heating solutions.
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Heating Mats
In instances where the surface area of the pipe to be frost-protected is relatively large, heating mats can be an ideal solution. A heating mat works similar to trace heating, except rather than utilizing individual heating cables it contains a number that is held within a mat made of aluminum, silicon, or another material. They are both easy to fit and have a space-efficient way of frost-protecting your pipes.
