Anti-Frost Precautions in Loft

[mitch...]

I had a pipe burst in a loft and am pondering the best solution to prevent this in future. All pipes were already lagged, there is no CH in property (electric only heating) and the electric HW boiler is in the loft (hence needing feed and return pipes). As its a flat I cannot move the boiler into the heated living area.

Options appear to be; a/ radiant heater shining on pipes, plugged into frost thermostat plug b/ heat trace strip along all pipes/valves + frost thermostat c/ somehow arrange the living space electric heating to be on via a frost stat (very inefficient and unlikely to work) d/ ??

The huge disturbance of having a new ceiling/decorating is so disruptive I can't just leave it and hope for the best as I already tried that :(

What are your thoughts?

Thanks

[Graham.]

Trace heating tape Example :

[Jack Harry Teesdale]

+1

[Michael Chare]

I have a thermostat in the attic which trips went the temperature gets down to about 1 deg C.

If the property is unoccupied I leave the loft door open and the thermostat starts the boiler Central heating.

This year for the first time in my life two drains stopped working. One was the kitchen drain and it did start working later in the day when the sun came out. The other drain was for a basin in the loo. It did not clear until the next day.

[Andrew]

Well you could alter your loft insulation so that it loops up and over pipes liable to freezing, so that the tunnel in which the pipes sit is now at the temperature of the room below. Get one of those garden thermometers with a remote sensor so you can see what your loft temperature is without going up there.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

on 15/02/2021, [e-mail] supposed :

b/ is the obvious and cheapest to run option.

[Scion]

Yup. It's the one that's designed to solve the exact problem.

[Andrew]

Err, no, simply re-arranging the loft insulation as I have mentioned is zero cost.

[mitch...]

Thanks all for responses. Heat trace tape seems to be the way to go.

[RJH]

Coldest it's been in Sheffield for 15 years in real terms - cellar dropped to freezing and the NAS shut down because of the cold. Luckily the pipes didn't freeze.