Depending on your chosen installation method you will either be cable tying the heater to mesh (asphalt and sand installations) or reinforcement fabric (concrete installations). This enables a speedy set up and it is also simple to rejig the cables if you find you have a little left over towards the end of the area.

Depending on your desired output, your cable would normally be spaced between 165mm and 200mm apart when being installed onto standard surfaces. If encased in concrete the cable can be run any way across the area you are heating, but if you are installing beneath asphalt the cable must run across any slopes rather than up and down them, to avoid cable stretch.

There are a wide variety of methods for installing Heatcom’s driveway heating cables and they mainly differ depending on the final surface you are protecting. Below we have detailed the three most common methods of installation and full details are included with each heating cable.

Hot asphalt can be poured directly on top of these cables which offers a huge advantage over conventional systems. The base layer that the cables are going to be placed onto should be firm, level and should not contain any sharp elements which could damage the cable. A flexible wire mesh should be placed in 1.2m strips across the area to be heated, with 2m between each strip. The cables can then be cable-tied onto the mesh at the appropriate spacing. The coldtail connection and coldtail lead are not designed to come into direct contact with hot asphalt so these should be covered with tile adhesive, cement, or cold asphalt ahead of covering the main area. A minimum depth of 50mm of hot asphalt should be poured on top of the system and this can be compacted with a light roller if required. If a resin finish is desired this can be laid once the asphalt has cooled.

Heating cables are often installed into concrete bases as concrete is particularly prone to damage from rock salt and freeze/thaw activity. The standard installation method would be to level the existing base and place a reinforcement fabric or rebar grid onto this layer. The grid should be raised at least 10mm above the base layer to allow total encapsulation of the cable by the concrete. The cables should be cable-tied in place on the grid at the appropriate spacing. There is no need to provide any additional protection to the coldtail connection or coldtail itself. The concrete can now be poured, and it should form a layer with a minimum depth of 50mm; the concrete mix must not include sharp aggregate as this could damage the cables.

Care must be taken not to drop any paving slabs onto the cable during installation as these could damage the heating system. The normal method of installation would be to level the current surface and lay a 60mm layer of sand/grit then compact this as required. A flexible 1.2m wide wire mesh is then laid on top, with 2m between each run, and the heating cables are cable-tied in place. A further 40-50mm layer of sand/grit is then laid on top of the cables and this layer is compacted by hand to ensure no damage. Block paving can then be laid; to achieve the greatest benefit from the heating system, blocks should be no more than 80mm thick.

The electrical connections for the heating cables and the wiring of the controllers and sensors should be carried out by a suitably qualified electrician.

Although cables can be powered directly through controllers, they are normally powered via individual contactors on their own circuits with 30mA protection, as required by S.753 of the 18th Edition wiring regulations.