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Protect Pipes From Freezing With Pipe Heating Cable & Waterproof Insulation
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Jan 25, 2024
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View Video Transcript
0:00
In this video I'm going to be showing you how to insulate a water line that can't be
0:05
very deep enough to protect it from freezing. So here we have a situation here there's a little
0:10
bit of a trench there's not a whole lot more soil here before we get to bedrock so it's kind of a
0:15
classic cottage country situation. We're going to be using a cable to heat that water line
0:25
There's a cable here and an interesting thing about it is we're going to be taping it to the
0:32
outside of the water line and then we're going to be encasing the whole thing in an insulating
0:37
sleeve and then putting this pvc pipe over everything to protect the insulation mechanically
0:44
and also to stop it from getting waterlogged and this cable is also going to be controlled
0:50
by a thermostat so it'll only come on when it needs to when things get cold enough to kind of
0:55
get near freezing. In addition to that this cable is kind of unique in that it has the ability to
1:02
put out different amounts of heat depending on the temperature at that spot. So theoretically
1:09
if this area of the cable were a little bit deeper say and it didn't get as cold as the higher stuff
1:16
this area which is closer to the surface and gets cold more easily would put out more heat
1:23
in this zone rather than this zone so it's pretty smart cable as it goes. Now the cable can't
1:29
completely shut itself off though so in the summertime when there's no danger of freezing
1:34
it would still be using some electricity so that's why we're going to couple the installation with a
1:40
thermostat that has a probe that goes right next to the pipe and controls the flow of current to
1:46
the system. So what we're going to do now is we're going to actually start applying this cable to the
1:52
outside of this inch and a quarter water line and we're going to do that with some aluminum tape
1:58
as you'll see right now. Here we are inside the building where this water line is going to go
2:03
inch and a quarter pipe is coming up through there's lots of extra here for making the connections
2:08
to the internal water system and this is the end of that heating cable I was telling you about
2:13
We've applied it to the outside of the pipe with some pretty thick heavy duty aluminum tape
2:21
It forms over it holds the cable tight to the pipe along its whole length and it also helps to
2:28
conduct heat over the pipe as well so we're just going to continue this operation all the way along
2:34
and then we're going to switch to the foam. So we've got the pipe insulation on here and it's going right up into the building where it's going
3:02
to be heated. This will all be encased in a protective pipe later on but I wanted you to see
3:10
how this works and how the how the foam insulation goes up on top of the pipe
3:18
There's this self-adhesive strips that you pull off and it seals together and it's going to be
3:26
encased too in some pipe as I said to protect it keep it from getting chewed on by mice and
3:33
deteriorating so that's the the insulation step right there. So just to ensure that the foam stays together one piece to the other
3:56
there's this black tape that kind of encases that. And if you have see along here we've got a bend and that can tend to make the seams open up a bit
4:19
not that it matters a lot long term because we're going to be putting the PVC over top of everything
4:24
but probably not a good idea or probably is a good idea to just make sure this stays shut
4:33
So it's been a few days now we've got some snow but at this stage we're putting PVC pipe on top
4:39
over the insulated water pipe that protects the insulation in the water pipe and it also
4:44
stops the foam from getting waterlogged over time. So we just put some some PVC cement on the joint
4:52
and then put the pieces together and we're good to go. Here we are in the building where the water
4:58
flow starts from this is the water pump here this pipe is the one you saw earlier it's the one we
5:04
covered in foam and PVC plastic it's come into the building now and this is the cable that we
5:11
taped to the outside once you get inside the building the cable doesn't need to be fastened
5:16
to the pipe it doesn't need to heat the pipe anymore because now we're in a space that will
5:21
be heated eventually. So we're coming to the end of the installation and the heating cable
5:28
plugs into this thermostat here the thermostat has a temperature probe on the end this probe
5:36
and the cable you see here follows the water pipe out and it actually gets installed inside the PVC
5:43
within the insulation that's surrounding the pipe and that feeds information back to the thermostat
5:50
telling it to turn on or off accordingly. So the system works it's really quite simple just
5:56
just plugs in here like this and then the thermostat will turn the cable on when heat
6:04
is necessary and shut it off again when heat is not necessary. Now that function coupled with the
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fact that this cable is pretty smart means that the system does not use very much electricity at
6:17
all. This cable is smart enough that it can apply more or less heat along its length depending on
6:22
the temperature right there at the cable so it's self-regulating in a certain way but coupled with
6:28
the thermostat it really uses the bare minimum of electricity you might not even really notice it on
6:35
your hydro bill. So some time has passed and we've got the water line actually installed here and I
6:40
just want to show you one little trick it's very useful for bringing a water line up into a building
6:45
that's raised off the ground. This is a toilet flange so normally this would be connected to
6:51
drain pipes the toilet would bolt to it but it makes a perfect situation, perfect setup
6:58
for neatly having that pipe come in. It fastens in this case to this little raised box it can
7:04
also fasten directly to the floor if you want to do that and it just gives you a nice
7:09
neat place for the pipe to come up and here you can you can see that smart heating cable
#Heaters
#HVAC & Climate Control
#Plumbing