Does Your Electric Trace Heating System Meet Your Process Temperature Needs?
Electric Trace Heating Systems are an excellent choice for your freeze protection and process temperature maintenance needs. Self-regulating heating cables prevent pipes from freezing and maintain liquids at a specified temperature in commercial and industrial applications.
Electrical Trace Heating Systems are put to the test when maintaining higher temperatures. If you find that your cables are not operating properly, use Drexan’s Testing and Troubleshooting Trace Heating Cable Guide to ensure that you have properly installed the cable or to troubleshoot common problems in Electric Trace Heating which include:
- Circuit breaker trips
- Zero power output
- Power output is correct but pipe temperature is below design values.
Drexan recommends that self-regulating cables be tested when the heating cable is received, prior to installation and after installation using a 2500 VDC megger. By detecting any possible cable damage prior to the application of thermal insulation additional labour costs can be prevented. We recommend that a minimum reading of 20 M Ohms for each circuit is an acceptable test level and 5 M Ohms after pipe has been insulated.
Keeping a test record after a cable has been installed is a good practice as this reading can be used as a reference point when taking future readings during regular maintenance. Having a history of resistance readings can be useful in spotting moisture ingression into the cable from either junction boxes or physical damage to the cable.
The key to having a reliable Trace Heating System is ensuring it is properly designed. A properly designed system minimizes both the total installed costs (materials plus labor) and ongoing operating costs.
An improperly designed Trace Heating System can result in having higher than necessary wattages and a greater number of circuits being specified translating into higher installed costs and energy consumption.
Drexan offers you more than just heating cables. Should you need to troubleshoot your Trace Heating System, you have access to a skilled team of experts through Drexan’s TechLine along with Drexan Designer+ software capable of designing a single circuit or thousands of circuits for even the largest project.
Download our Troubleshooting Guide today, call our TechLine at 1-800-663-6873 if you have further questions about your electric heat tracing system or would like your own copy of Drexan Designer+ software. We’re here to help.
