Heat-Tracing Circuit Length and Load Estimator

Self-regulating tape is bought by the metre and installed as a circuit, and the circuit is what runs out first. This estimator returns the steady-state load of a circuit and the longest circuit a given breaker will carry, so a pipe run can be split into the right number of circuits before a construction is worth discussing.

Circuit length (m)

Tape output at maintain temperature (W/m)

Supply voltage (V)

Breaker rating (A)

Continuous-load factor

Enter a circuit length, a tape output and a breaker rating. The result gives the steady-state load, the longest circuit that breaker carries, and how many circuits the run needs.

What this estimator does not model

The figure returned is the steady-state load at maintain temperature. Self-regulating tape draws considerably more than that on a cold start, and the inrush curve is a property of the specific tape, published by whoever makes it. Size the breaker against that curve, not against this number.

The continuous-load factor is an input, not a rule this page asserts. Set it to whatever your own project’s wiring rules require. Skin-effect circuits are engineered per pipeline and are outside what a length-and-load estimate can answer.

Send the pipe schedule and the maintain temperature and we return a tape construction against it.