Small scale heat tape project -- is this possible?
We just spent a week in the Sierra, with single digit temps at night -- I was able to avoid frozen pipes by getting up every couple of hours at night to run my DIY crude-but-effective hot water recirculating device.
We figured out that the problem area is where the fresh water hose emerges from the tank, under the trailer, and runs to the interior of the trailer. As a stopgap, I used an old electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, powered by an inverter hooked to my spare battery. It worked, but this is not a permanent solution.
So here is my plan: first, I am going to enclose and insulate the underside, of course.
Second, we need to warm just that particular pipe. It is only about three feet long. I want to put some heat tape on that pipe and then insulate the pipe and the tape. I will power the tape with my spare battery.
Is that doable? Is there a way to have a low wattage heat tape on a particular pipe? If the wattage is low enough, the battery can handle the load just fine. I don't want to heat the pipe up to room temperature -- keeping it just above freezing will be enough.
I think I don't really need a thermostat -- I can start it and stop it manually.
I understand that this solution will not work below zero, or where the daytime temps never get above 20 degrees. Under those conditions, the whole fresh water tank will freeze.
I don't care much if the gray water and the black water tanks freeze. The waste water dumps into them just fine. When we need to dump, we are almost always in a much warmer place at a lower elevation.
Thanks in advance for your advice!!
We figured out that the problem area is where the fresh water hose emerges from the tank, under the trailer, and runs to the interior of the trailer. As a stopgap, I used an old electric heating pad wrapped around the pipe, powered by an inverter hooked to my spare battery. It worked, but this is not a permanent solution.
So here is my plan: first, I am going to enclose and insulate the underside, of course.
Second, we need to warm just that particular pipe. It is only about three feet long. I want to put some heat tape on that pipe and then insulate the pipe and the tape. I will power the tape with my spare battery.
Is that doable? Is there a way to have a low wattage heat tape on a particular pipe? If the wattage is low enough, the battery can handle the load just fine. I don't want to heat the pipe up to room temperature -- keeping it just above freezing will be enough.
I think I don't really need a thermostat -- I can start it and stop it manually.
I understand that this solution will not work below zero, or where the daytime temps never get above 20 degrees. Under those conditions, the whole fresh water tank will freeze.
I don't care much if the gray water and the black water tanks freeze. The waste water dumps into them just fine. When we need to dump, we are almost always in a much warmer place at a lower elevation.
Thanks in advance for your advice!!
