Heated tracks with their own hands - features of the system and its installation

Winter troubles associated with clearing snow-covered areas make people look for alternatives, because no one will like to clear and break ice on the porch for a long time, spending a lot of time and effort on it. Of course, such events are necessary in order to comfortably move around the territory, and also not to put at risk themselves and their relatives serious injuries if they move on slippery surfaces. Simplify the tasks can heated tracks. How to make the tracks with their own hands will be discussed in this article.

Thanks to the track heating system, their lifespan is increased, you can easily open gates and doors. The most popular places for installing heating are paths, steps, ramp, playgrounds, and a place to park the car.

The advantages of the system

Among some of the advantages of the system, the following can be noted:

• labor-intensive manual labor is replaced with an automatic system;
• both gates and doors can open without difficulty, regardless of weather conditions;
• the life of the tracks increases;
• a simplified method of clearing ice and snow in winter from any surface.

Installing a heating cable

Previously, several different methods were used to combat snow and icing on tracks:

• sprinkling icy paths with sand or salt;
• acting with a standard snow plow;
• with expensive snow blowers.

The system of mechanical heating constitutes the coordinated work of both the control panel and the heating part. The demand for this product has grown, since the heated paths are easy to modernize with your own hands and, moreover, the price for them is acceptable.

Heated area

Concerning the issue of durability in the heating system of a country house tracks and its equipment, it is important to note guarantee heating element, it should be about 10 years of operation. Sensors have a high service life of 5 years each. According to experts, such a system can last up to 50 years, if, of course, to comply with all safety rules in installation and operation.

When designing modern country houses, specialists use a track heating system with other analog systems (for example, such a technology as “smart light”).

Principle of operation

Before heating the tracks, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the components of the heating system:

• The heating part consists of electrical mats or cable. These electric heating elements are resistant to bad weather situations and have significant strength.
• The control system consists of protective and starting equipment, sensors measure dampness and temperature fluctuations in the street, and for convenience of operation of the entire system various thermal sensors and controllers are installed. Such a heating system provides melting of ice and snow.
• In the distribution part, the heating part is connected with the control system. It includes junction boxes, cable fasteners, power cable, data cable, etc.

Heating elements

In the automatic heating of the tracks there are numerous sensors, they, in turn, give a signal to the control panel, reporting temperature in the ground, atmosphere, and also moisture in the external environment. All of them play the role of a miniature meteorological station, which keeps the weather conditions in country houses under observation and immediately informs the system that heating starts when snow begins to fall or frost appears.

Installation

You can put the heating part of the track heating system either on a gravel or sand pad, or on a previous surface. Installing a track heating system is simple and you can handle this task yourself.

If you decide to use a cable as a heating element, put it as a snake and keep the distance between the cables (this is based on the power per 1 ² of the whole surface) .

Heating cable

To fix the cable, use a mounting tape for its intended purpose. To reduce the energy consumption in the system of heating the tracks of a country house, it is important to reduce power consumption. To do this, build a small layer of insulating material over the heating elements. But take into account during the installation of safety, leaving a small distance between the heating elements and insulation (this distance can vary from 3 to 5 cm).

It is recommended to use either a concrete screed or a sand pad as protective layers (this is done to protect against precipitation and any damage). Such a pillow will serve as the basis for paving slabs.

We invite you to view a video on the sequence of installation of heating elements for heating the tracks:

Additional recommendations

For the implementation of an objective choice of a heating system, it is initially important to determine the installation capacity, based on the requirements of the installation, while observing the climate and the applied monitoring system. For example, in the Belarusian and Russian conditions, systems are installed with a capacity of 250 to 400 W / m ² .

Heated steps

Heated tracks make life in your home more comfortable and safe. To mount these devices is quite simple. The system is not very complex. If you have any questions on the topic or you want to share your personal experience in installing heated tracks, write comments to the article.

Maybe you will be interested in additional materials from our site:

• How to make a covering for the site
• How to properly lay pavement tiles
• Features of laying curbs
• Peculiarities of lawns