How Much Electricity Do Roof Heat Tapes Use

Calculate the length of heat tape and the number of roof clips and hangers needed for a heat tape installation to prevent ice dams.

How much electricity do roof heat tapes use. When heat cables are run in a zig zag fashion on the roof more heat cable is need to accomplish what is intended to do. When it s cold they draw more. Take one end of the cable and begin at. If your distance to power connection is longer then 15 feet you may want to consider our new heattape pro xl line of heat tape that includes an extra long cold lead on our industry leading heattape pro.

If you don t have a gfi grounded outlet you may need to hire an electrician to put one close by. When heat cables are used in conjunction with thermally conductive materials greated melting capacity is achieved with less heat cable resulting in lower overall operating cost year after year. For a heat cable that is easy to install and use wrap on ice dam heat cable is a smart choice. Length of heat cable used x wattage of heat cable x cost per kilowatt hr.

Install roof heater cables when it s dry outside and it s safe to do the work from a ladder. After all we replace a bunch of those systems every year when they fail. Perhaps we shouldn t say too many disparaging things about cheap ice dam heat tape systems. Most roof heating wire products are 110v with rated electric use of 8w per linear foot.

This means that you should not install more than 190 feet of heat wire on a single 15a circuit. The type of heat tape used on roofs and gutters to prevent ice buildup is properly called heat cable. Then the calculation is the same as given above. When it s warm outside they draw very little electricity.

Installing roof heating cables. If you choose to use heat tape pro xl add only the distance to power connection that is surplus of 50 feet so if you are 65 feet away put 15 for this. They re relatively inexpensive to install especially compared to the cost of cleaning up the destruction wrought by ice and water. For a heat cable that draws only a minimal amount of power reducing its operational cost sixtools de icing cable only uses five amps of electricity.

The term heat tape refers to another product an insulated electrical wire applied to water pipes to keep them from freezing and bursting. Use the included instructions download here to calculate exactly how much roof de icing cable you need to buy. It requires no ongoing maintenance either. One way to prevent ice dams is to install roof heating cables also known as deicing cables or roof heat tape.

Also keep in mind that you need to run your cable from the nearest power outlet to the roof a distance that is about 15 feet on average unless you run your waterproof extension cord right to the roof.