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The water pump on the borehole's had it. It's in a shed, but must have frozen. What's the best way to stop it freezing? Low tempurature heating tape, heater, ??
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FT, do you have electricity there? Ive just bought tinyurl.com/36e43ms Actually I've bought a complete tape / thermostat but that's a bit harder to find on the TLC site, sorry. Paid just under £45 for 1 metre. Of course 2 metres is hardly more expensive :-(
Garage tap froze this year, despite tube heater under it so I'm hoping a more focussed heat source will work. Had -15c one night, coldest since we've been here.
JH
Last edited by: Tooslow on Fri 7 May 10 at 14:10
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That looks good (I also found a "splashproof thermostat" at: www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/TCWS10.html) - could it be used with lagging, I wonder?
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FT, yes, you apply lagging over the top. I'll have a dig around, there is a complete kit, inc thermostat. Much better than having make joints and so forth.
Ah - this is it www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CCPGE01.html
Sorry, is that what you were pointing at, link didn't work.
JH
Last edited by: Tooslow on Fri 7 May 10 at 14:25
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That looks like the "self-regulating" tape kit, there's a "splashproof thermostat" too, but I am not sure the cost is justified (nearly £38) - that's quite a lot of electricity compared to the few watts the heating tape would use!
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FT ?? It's 17w per metre. Unless I'm missing something?
JH
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>> FT ?? It's 17w per metre. Unless I'm missing something?
The thermostat is nearly £40 - at 17W/m, and (say) 15p/unit, that's about 250 "units", about 50 hours on a unit, 12,500 hours, 520 days continuous running. On for 5 months of the year, about 3 1/2 years to buy the thermostat in terms of energy cost. Maybe worth buying for "greenness".
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I'm not sure of OP's installation, but an old caravan trick is to leave the water running.
It works on the theory that a pond often freezes, but a stream rarely does.
Leaving a tap dribbling will gain you several extra degrees of frost protection.
It's a waste of a precious resource, unless you collect the water for some purpose.
I reckon a dribbling tap has less environmental imapct than any form of heating, which must use fuel of some sort.
Leaving the tap running is also cheaper.
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FT, I don't really follow your logic. I priced it against the cost of a plumber! I'd be happy if it used no electricity because it didn't get cold enough. You're saying you want something that uses more juice because the cost of the energy consumed matches the cost of the unit more quickly?
JH
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>> You're saying you want something that uses more juice because the cost of the energy
>> consumed matches the cost of the unit more quickly?
No, I am saying that the cost of the heating element is one thing, and the cost of the thermostat is another.
If I just use a heating element, it will cost a few pounds.
The thermostat costs nearly £40.
Do I need a thermostat? It would be nice to have the heating element switched on only when it's near freezing, but the extra energy used by just leaving the heater on (say) between November and April won't cost very much - it will take a year or three tot up to the cost of the thermostat.
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How to stop water pump freezing. - Tooslow
