Heat Tape Pro and Pipe Freeze Pro are offered in many lengths from 6-foot up to 150-foot. These products are not designed to be modified, so you should pick the length you need and work with that length. These cables should not be altered and doing so would void any warranty on the product.
We offer heat tape on spools from 250-foot to 1000-foot. These spools are designed to be cut to length, made into multiple cables, etc. Heat Tape on spools needs to be hard-wired into a junction box, or have a power connection plug-in manually added to it for use. It also requires ends to be properly sealed and terminated. When working with Heat Tape on spools, a Licensed Electrician should be utilized to assure proper wiring per regional codes and standards.
The short answer is NO. Self-regulating heat cable does not turn itself on and off automatically. To do that you need to put the cable on a switched circuit or outlet or on a controller. Of course, you can also be old-school about it and simply plug and unplug as needed.
“Self-Regulating” refers to the fact that these cables are temperature sensitive. Due to their construction, these cables sense changes in temperature along their entire length, demanding more power as temps fall and less when they rise.
PipeFreeeze Pro™, Pipe Freeze Protection Solution has a built in thermostatic switch, meaning it will turn on and off on it’s own.
Heat Tape Pro™, does not contain a built-in thermostatic controller. We recommend adding the ThermaCord™ Thermostatic controller to turn your Heat Tape PRO to turn the cable on and off with changes in temperature.
Including a thermostatic heat tape switch or controller in your installation will cut power to your heat tape in times it is not needed. This will lessen your environmental footprint and save you money.
Savings will always depend on the weather and how often you have temperatures above the threshold that the switch turns on your heat cable. In most situations where heat cable is needed, savings will offset the cost of the ThermaCord and then some.
The Free Shipping option uses available “standard” delivery methods for whichever carrier services your location. For many that means UPS ground, but for locations that UPS doesn’t go to –or is too expensive, we substitute a different carrier.
We are based in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) metro area, so depending on where you are located, your shipping time will vary.
Here’s A link to shipping distances with Approximations of Lead times
If you can’t wait for your product to arrive via UPS ground, Radiant Solutions also offers a paid, 2-day shipping option. One thing to keep in mind: our cables are fairly heavy, which mean they are expensive for us to ship. This means that they are even more expensive to ship expeditiously. A little bit of planning ahead can save you some good money.
Radiant solutions has developed several accessories and installation components that work well for flat and low-pitch roofs. Installing heat tape on a flat roof often requires more unique considerations than standard serpentine patterns used on pitched roofs.
Check out our Case Studies for examples of Heat Tape installations, including information on flat roofs.
Also refer to the Heat Tape Pro Product Manual for information on flat roof installations of heat tape.
We are building a hand guide to identify what kind of roof you have and find the clips that can/should be used with that roof-type.
View the Guide Explaining What Clips You Need Here
We have a guide on How to Measure for Purchasing Heat Tape that will help you. Once you have your measurements, you can find our Heat Tape Calculator here.
The terms heat cable, heat tape and heat trace are all used interchangeably to described heated cables used to protect pipes from freezing, preventing roof and gutter ice dams from forming and for safeguarding temperature sensitive components.
Other terms we’ve seen used regarding Heat Tape are:
This includes, but is not limited to:
The type of roof you have determines the roof clips and accessories needed. Check out our Heat Tape Installation Accessories.
