Avoid School Closures: Prepare Schools for the Winter Now

The summer holiday is a time for students and teachers to relax but if you are responsible for managing the school then it can actually be the busiest part of the year.

It is important to get the school completely prepared for when the new term begins and the whole academic year starts again. You might need to complete safety checks, test security systems, and complete jobs that cannot be completed during term time. Amongst other things, you might want to think about what heating and freeze protection systems you have in place.

Although the summer has only just begun, you should prepare your building for the winter months in advance to avoid the hassle of having to close your school due to safety, and parents becoming annoyed by the costs ensued from childcare.

At Cross Electrical we specialise in trace heating systems which are designed to prevent pipes from becoming frozen during the winter by reducing the amount of heat that they lose via their surface. Electrical trace heating is a method of raising the temperatures of pipes in a freezing climate so that water inside them does not freeze.

It is a safe and maintenance-free system; once it has been put in place you no longer need to worry about pipes freezing during the winter.

In addition to preventing pipes from freezing, trace heating can also be used to maintain a constant temperature in hot water systems. It is particularly useful for containing substances that would otherwise solidify in ambient temperatures.

A thermostat is usually used to boost heat if a substance within a pipe falls below or rises above certain temperatures, these temperatures are referred to as the “setpoints”.

Heat tracing cables can be situated on the roof of a building or in the gutters during the winter to melt any ice that builds up there. When tracing cables are put into gutters it does not mean that no ice occurs in the gutter at all. Instead the aim is to provide a path for melted water to fall from the roof and down the piping.

Combining trace heating with the right thermal insulation creates a balance whereby the heat output from the trace heating matches the heat loss from the pipe so that a perfect, consistent temperature is maintained.

This type of piping is used in many industrial applications such as oil refineries or food factories where a certain material solidifies below 50◦C for example, which is much hotter than the surrounding air. The pipeline must have additional external heating to prevent the pipe and what it is carrying from cooling down – which is where trace heating comes in.

Essentially trace heating is a cost-efficient, reliable method of preventing ice from harming a building. If you would like to find out more about the trace heating systems and other methods of protecting your building from extreme weather condition, contact us on 01159 375 121 or make an enquiry via our website.

Efficient energy with Cross Electrical hot water distribution

UK building regulations require all engineers, architects and builders to ensure that they work hard to reduce energy consumption and use in the areas in which they work while trying their best to utilise renewable sources of energy.

Hot water pipe work is just one area in which those working in these types of industry can make an impact on this reduction in the energy use of a whole building, more so than making a change in other sectors. 

Hot water pipes must be able to withstand the maximum temperature of the water being piped. Pipe material may be copper or an appropriate thermoplastic material.

Standard methods of hot water distribution in a building which are often referred to as a ‘flow and return’ in domestic water heaters function on designs which don’t necessarily work within commercial use due to its method of water at the tap outlet as opposed toin the pipe work like a Cross Electrical solution would.

This system is not energy efficient for commercial and industry use and can often lead to significant heat losses meaning further monetary losses also.

At Cross Electrical our aims to ensure your industry is utilising the correct temperature maintenance when building or constructing homes and buildings to enable cost-effectiveness for yourself and your clients in addition to producing and using efficient energy. 

This is why we promote our modern solution the XEL-W which offers an effective solution for hot water pipe work within re-circulation systems. 

You can see from our graph the significant impact this piece of equipment can have. By combining hot water comfort with economical methods, the self-regulating heating cable fitted which is made to be fitted on one single pipe’s delivery system can compensate for the heat loss of water in the pipe while ensuring that hot water is delivered at the desired temperature the whole way through to the hot water system.

The XEL-W is the perfect solution for hot water temperature maintenance of pipes in:

• ·         Family homes
• ·         Houses and flats
• ·         Hospitals
• ·         Sports centres
• ·         Industry buildings

By providing hot water from every tap outlet it eliminates the necessity for return pipe work, reduces energy consumption and is easy to install without any maintenance required. What’s more it can also be used for low temperature process maintenance.

 

With 50% less pipe work than normal hot water pipe work systems the XEL-W has been specifically designed for such application and can even be fitted to existing systems preventing the running of gallons of cold water in order to get to the hot water.

Welcome to Cross Electrical

Cross Electrical is a company based in the East Midlands that specialises in electrical trace heating systems that incorporate a thermal insulation system. The company was established in 1971 to service the heavy fuel oil industry, and since then it has become one of the market leaders in this type of engineering.

Our engineers are all fully qualified with lots of experience in installing these systems. We also employ service and repair technicians who are given thorough training and provided with test and fault location equipment.

Although we are based in the East Midlands, our engineers provide a service anywhere across the country, as well as internationally, for all applications within industry and commerce.

Cross Electrical have expertise in bitumen trace heating systems and our service includes the processing of Bitumen in its liquid state. When dealing with bitumen we tend to install mineral cables because the surface temperatures of these cables can bear the high temperatures of bitumen which ranges from 150°C to over 200°C.

We sell snow- and ice-melting systems

Another product that we specialise in is snow and ice melting systems. Snow can be a huge inconvenience for people who need to walk to work, or particularly in areas around stairs where a slippery floor can cause accidents. Our systems can be situated directly under asphalt, embedded in concrete, or integrated into stairways. They are temperature-controlled so that ice or snow on top of them is immediately melted. Likewise, our roof gutter heating systems are implemented to prevent icicles forming and potentially harming people, downpipes from bursting, and water penetrating through to buildings.

Frost Protection Systems limit damage

Our frost protection system is designed with the aim of preventing frozen pipes from forming and cracking, which in turn creates long-term damage to buildings. The XEL range of Self-Regulating Heating Cables can be used on plastic or metal pipes. They cannot overheat because they are self-regulating but they are also good for the environment because they only heat up when they need to in order to prevent freezing.

If you have any questions about our company or what we do then please feel free to contact us, we look forward to hearing from you.