Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/454549
FEBRUARY 2015 14 THE JOURNAL BY GEORGE PORTER SERVICE & SET-UP Hot Stuff! Recently someone e-mailed me and said that their plumber would not use heat tape on homes because it was dangerous; they started fires! He was also sure these "Mobile Homes" lit up like a match head and he wanted no part of it all. Ahh, the sins of the past never die do they? Early heat tapes sometimes did cause fires. Early heat tape looked like old TV antenna wire (2 wires with a wide flat in the middle?) If you wrapped it over itself it would melt, short out and become a toaster element and burn down the house. It was also the cheapest, not considering the house cost. The heat tape that was available back in the 70's cost $8 for 10 feet with plug but you had to buy one nearly every year if you still had the house. They don't make it like that any more. One evening I was driving through the com- munity I ran for 20 years and I saw a strange blue glow coming from the side of a home. Not bright but I just happened to notice it so I got out and looked at it. The heat tape had set the skirting on fire and it was dripping little drops of melted vinyl down on the ground. Now the heat tape was not supposed to do that, but neither was the skirting. Apparently when the heat source con- tinues to feed the fire the fireproof skirting will burn. That was a good day for the folks in the home. You could not have seen it in the day- light. There were two other homes over the years that were not as lucky. New stuff has much more quality in it and it is plugged into better electronics (gfci). It also cost more but is worth every penny. Some you can cut it to length and tie it in knots if you want. I still would never put it inside the structure. Always stop short about 4 inches from the bottom of the house and insulate the whole way up. Then wrap with plastic wrap for the wind protection. The wrap that comes with some tapes looks like Saran wrap but a little thicker. It is there to cut off the wind from the pipe; keep the insulation dry; and it should last a while too. Later on I used a little bit oversized foam pipe insulation that looked like a split tube and secured it with zip ties. It is necessary to have an air barrier because I have had just fiberglass wrapped water lines freeze without it in bitter cold winds. I have also had a customer complain that the heat tape I sold him didn't work because his water was off. (He had wrapped the copper gas line, Gasp!) I did have a customer who found a way to keep his water flowing without using a tape. He built a wooden box around the inlet pipe and filled it with cow manure. It generated enough heat to work but there were side effects! I also have pictures of a home totally sur- rounded by hay bales. He just put the bales up next to the skirting everywhere around the home and he said his water never froze. I am sure his floors were comfy too; soft and warm…. Nice! One of the interesting things about heating ca- bles (The new heat tape) is that they are used on many new stick-built homes without a thought. They actually put them on the edge of the roof to melt ice dams that will form in very cold climates. As snow or water runs down the roof it will get to the edge which is a bit colder than that the rest of the roof because of the eaves. These eaves are sort of boxes of nothing and have no heat source. In fact they usually are vented so they have a supply of cold air on both sides of the roof deck- ing. When the ice forms on the roof over the eave it creates a barrier several inches high (The dam) and water backs up and gets under the shingles and leaks in the home. The solution is to seal the edge of the roof back several feet with solid roofing that will not leak and/or put heat cable at the edge to melt the ice. This is applied right on the roof next to the shingles and appar- ently the plumber had no problems with that idea because of course it was a real house. (Groan!) So how do you use a heat tape? First you read the directions!! They still make heat tape that can not be wrapped over its self. They also make some that you can if you want to. Most it seems to come in parts and some come in kits. Some have a built in thermostat and others don't. About thermostats: if you don't have one you will need to plug it in when you need it because of freezing temperature and should pull the plug when you don't. If you do have a thermostat in line with the cable then it must be exposed to the air, not under the insulation…. Duh! Comes on OK but quickly cuts off when it gets warm from the tape and the pipe a few feet away freezes intermittently, eventually bursts. Been there, done that. You should have a thermostat somewhere in the system so you don't run the heat all the time and nearly all have a test switch to see if it works. Most have a little light somewhere so you know it is on and that is about it. Last words: Do not go all wobbly on the price of a good heat tape. You can't get "too good" a heat tape all things considered. George Porter is a consultant to the manufactured housing industry. His Company is Manufactured Housing Resources, P.O. Box 9, Nassau, DE 19969, (302) 645 5552, Fax: (302) 645 1152, Web: www.george-porter.com. Some of his services are both in person and On-line training for certification in many states plus expert witness and investigation for the industry. T J