Heat tape and other cold weather band-aids

It's winter here in the northern hemisphere.  Climate change and global weirding has had our weather fluctuating between bitter cold and unseasonably warm.  During the really cold spells, energy consumption spikes as homes and businesses find their furnaces, boilers, and heaters running longer and more often in order to maintain comfortable living temperatures.  That is completely understandable.  While it is best to keep temperatures a bit low, and to add a clothing layer, realistically we all need to heat our homes.

What I would like to address is heat tape and other methods of preventing freezing.  In most cases, creating heat to prevent freezing with these products merely masks a problem that needs to be solved, and is not itself the solution.  The energy that is wasted is substantial and the solution is to correct the problem as opposed to reacting to it by using a product that constantly consumes energy.

Heat tape is used to prevent pipes from freezing, keeping ice from expanding and rupturing the pipe causing a damaging leak.  What is really needed is to correct the problem which puts the pipe in danger of freezing.  Proper location and insulation of water pipes and the walls they run through, should eliminate the need to use heat tape.  Most people do not use heat tape, so those that do should consider what they can do to fix their potential freezing situation.  There is obviously something wrong, but heat tape is not the answer.

Another use of a heat tape product is in order to prevent ice dams on the eaves of a roof.  These heat tapes zig-zag along the edge of the roof constantly heating the area in hopes of melting any snow and ice that may accumulate there causing ice dams.  Ice dams can be damaging and dangerous, but proper roof construction and insulation can eliminate the need for this wasteful energy waste.

As if heat tape wasn't bad enough, there is worse out there.  While radiant heat is fine indoors, there is an entire industry creating products to melt snow from on sidewalks and even driveways.  Pipes cast in to the concrete circulate heated water through the concrete heating it so snow and ice cannot accumulate.  This takes huge amounts of energy.  A shovel and perhaps an occasional bit of sand was adequate for centuries, there is no need for such a wasteful product.

So, please consider wasteful energy uses that relate to cold, snow, and ice.  There are alternatives and the planet needs us to use them.