Heat tape electrical requirments

[PT Doc]

I'm looking to get some electrical prewired to allow for ease of heat tape installation. We are going to add a 20a separate circuit for this purpose.

Can anyone with personal experience give me an idea of how much amp draw there is for a certain length run? Would it be good to have a few outlets installed and various locations?

I checked our gutters today on our shingled roof and they were dammed up due to the gutters being all frozen. Would this situation be occurring on a concrete tile roof that is installed on furring strips that allows for airflow underneath? I have heard all kinds of things of why these things happen and what can be done to prevent it.

Thanks for the help.

 

[rockwithjason]

it depends on what system you run and how much of it. if you are doing some short runs on pipe then a simple outlet will do. if you are doing the custom system for the gutters and all then you will need to have the controller mounted somewhere and the circuit sized to the system. that said i would bet that a single 20a outlet will do it.

 

[Rob_b]

Heat tape "generally" draws about 5-10 watts per foot @120V...so you could go quite a ways with a 20A circuit.