Frost protection solution for social housing

27-01-2023

The Goal

A housing association based in the Midlands had tasked their electrical contractor with finding a solution to the tenants’ frozen pipes. During early December 2022 overnight temperatures had been regularly falling to -8°C and despite lagging on their water supply pipes and boiler condensate pipes these had still frozen up. This had led to an intermittent water supply, gas boilers shutting down leading to no heating, and burst pipes once the cold temperatures relented.

The electrical contractor initially asked Heat Mat to specify trace heating systems however when considering the costs it quickly became clear that Heat Mat’s PipeGuard units were a better match for the requirements.

Heat Mat’s Solution

PipeGuard units were specified for each condensate and water pipe to provide complete protection along the entire length of the plastic and metal pipes.

PipeGuard’s built in temperature sensor automatically switches the system on when temperatures drop to a dangerous level and switches it back off once safe to do so ensuring the system runs in an energy efficient manner.

All PipeGuard units were wired directly into a switched fuse spur and their 100% earth shielding ensured that the units would work safely and would trip the RCD if there was any external damage to them.

In all cases the original insulation was able to be re-used over the top of the PipeGuard unit further saving on site costs.

The Result

During a repeat of 2022’s cold temperatures in January 2023 the units operated as expected providing complete frost protection to the water and condensate pipes. This ensured that all tenants had uninterrupted water supplies and heating throughout the cold spell.

The total cost for the heating products and installation were estimated to be around a third of the costs for installing conventional trace heating systems.