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What it is

Heat that follows the pipe

Cable runs along the pipe or the vessel, under the insulation, replacing the heat the line loses to the air around it.

A trace system is not a heater for a room. It is a compensation: it puts back what a line gives up through its lagging, so the contents stay where the process needs them.

Two jobs share the method. Freeze protection holds a line above the point at which what is in it stops moving. Process temperature maintenance holds it at the figure the process itself requires, which is a different number and usually a higher one.

Which of the two a line needs, and what it takes to do it, is a calculation against the medium, the pipe, the insulation and the design ambient. It is not chosen from a catalogue page, and it is not the same answer twice.

Schematic, not a layout drawing.
Where it goes

From a wellsite to a crawl space

Named by the installation rather than the part code. The Danfoss line behind each one is on the right.

01

Oilfield

Lines and equipment on sites where the ambient is the problem for half the year and the nearest alternative to a working line is a shutdown.

Wellsites, batteries, remote facilities

Danfoss PX
Self regulating
02

Process piping

Temperature maintenance where the medium has to stay at a figure to keep moving, rather than merely stay above freezing.

Process lines, headers, transfer piping

Danfoss PX
Self regulating
03

Tanks, valves and pumps

Equipment loses heat faster than the pipe leading to it, because there is more of it exposed. These are traced as their own items, not as part of the run.

Tanks, vessels, valves, pumps

Danfoss PX
Self regulating
04

Building pipe freeze protection

The domestic and building-services end of the same problem: a line in an unheated space that must not freeze.

Service lines, unheated spaces

Danfoss
Ice Guard
Specification

Where the numbers come from on a trace circuit

Manufacturer figures for the PX line, from the Danfoss catalogue. Output on a self-regulating cable is a behaviour rather than a fixed figure, and every rating that governs a given line comes off the specification for that line.

Output

Cable
Self regulating
Connected load
Per specification

Product

Industrial
PX
Freeze protection
Ice Guard
Controls
Per specification

Environment

Indoor
Yes
Outdoor
Yes
Specification and installation

Specified first, installed second

On an industrial line the specification is the work. Getting the cable onto the pipe is the straightforward half; deciding which cable, how much and under what control is the half that decides whether the line holds.

Every job starts with the line, not the cable.

Medium, pipe size and material, insulation, design ambient and the temperature the process has to hold. Those five decide the system. A trace design that starts from a product rather than from the line is a guess with a part number on it.

Dry-Ways supplies the system and can install it. Where another contractor is doing the work, the specification, the load and the test regime are still issued with the order, because the warranty depends on them.

Send us the line

  1. Define the duty

    Freeze protection or temperature maintenance, and to what figure. These are different systems and the answer changes everything downstream of it.

  2. Take the line data

    Medium, pipe size and material, insulation type and thickness, design ambient, and the length and fittings the run actually contains.

  3. Test on delivery

    Ohm and insulation readings taken before anything is unrolled, to prove the cable did not take damage in transit.

  4. Install to the specification

    Cable run and fixed to the issued drawing, with valves, pumps and vessels traced as their own items, then lagged.

  5. Test after lagging

    Second reading with the insulation on, because that is the state the system will live in and damage during lagging is the common failure.

  6. Commission and record

    Control set to the duty, final readings taken and recorded. Those readings are the warranty file.

Why it is specified

Medium, environment, hold temperature

The same cable family answers a wellsite and a service line in a crawl space. What separates them is not the product; it is the three things the design is sized against.

The medium

01

What is in the line, and the temperature below which it stops behaving. That figure is the floor the system has to hold, and it is a property of the contents rather than of the pipe.

The environment

02

Design ambient, exposure and the insulation between the two. A line in a heated building and the same line on a wellsite are not the same problem.

The hold temperature

03

Freeze protection and process maintenance are different duties with different numbers. Specifying one and installing the other is how a trace system disappoints quietly.

FAQ

Hazardous areas, existing systems, and where the cable sits

Five answers specific to heat trace. The general questions are on the homepage FAQ.

Not here? Send us the job or call 780-953-9297.

Is heat trace the same as pipe freeze protection?

Freeze protection is one of the duties heat trace performs. The other is process temperature maintenance, which holds a line at whatever figure the process needs rather than merely above freezing. The method is shared; the specification is not.

Can one cable do a whole site?

Runs are specified line by line. A self-regulating cable varies its output along its own length, which is what lets it follow a pipe through changing conditions, but the cable selected for one duty is not automatically right for the next.

Does it go over or under the insulation?

Under. The cable replaces the heat the line loses through its lagging, so it has to be inside it. The reading taken after lagging is there because that is the stage where cable gets damaged.

What about hazardous areas?

Area classification governs what may be installed and we will not specify against it from a web page. Send the classification with the line data and it is answered on the specification, in writing.

Can you take over an existing system?

Send us what is there. An existing run can be read and assessed, but a system without recorded readings has no warranty file behind it, and that is usually the first thing to establish.