24 ft, 120 Watt, 120 VAC PSR Pipe Tracing Heat Cable

Installed both a 50 ft and 100 ft PSR Pipe Tracing Heat Cable in copper gutters and 34 ft downspouts. Fabricated copper plumbing straps and bare 12 AWG copper wire to loosely attach heat cables to gutter straps and inside downspouts. Load total for 2 cables is 750 watts. Pre-assembled 3 prong plugs are plugged into weather protected 15A 110V Tamper Resistant Weather Resistant receptacles fed by GFCI breaker and with Leviton on-off z-wave switch rated for up to 1500 watts load. Components were installed in January 2016 and activated and currently being operated in Washington, DC following a 24" snow accumulation on the low slope standing seam copper roof. System is operating as planned and had eliminated prior icicle and ice ledge build up that occurred prior to installation. It is very important to assure heat cable extends below freeze line. To eliminate the build-up of icicles from low temperature steam emitted through the inner element of a concentric air intake - exhaust out PVC assembly from a gas fired condensing boiler I fabricated a cylindrical cage out of 1/2" galvanized mesh fabric and fastened one offset loop of the heat cable around the vent assembly. This provides enough heat to keep icicles from forming and would have enough heated fabric to keep ice build up from the concrete base 5 feet below from impairing boiler function. This was a DIY project.

The lead-in part of the cable is too short; in fact shorter than other heat cables -- only about 24" I wish that it were 6'.( 72") Gets barely warm, but at least just enough to function as needed. Application is roof edge deicing, applied in triangles pretty much according to instructions. However enclosed instructions are rather poor, with insufficient detail and very small drawings. I was able, with only a bit of difficulty, to figure it out myself. Enclosed instructions are definitely lacking! I recommend applying 24" aluminum flashing over comp shingles, which reduces friction and facilitates snow sliding into gutter.