Safety considerations for electrical heat tracing

Since the advent of electrical heat tracing over 50 years ago, many challenges have confronted industry to ensure safe and reliable heat tracing operation. Reliability of heat tracing systems can directly affect safety-related operations, such as fire protection and emergency eyewash and safety showers. As a good practice, the safety of process systems should not be dependent on the performance of a single component of the heat tracing system. The primary purpose of this article is to address the issue of high-impedance, low-current faults that have been reported in electrical heating cables. These faults usually initiate from phase to ground but have currents that are insufficient to trip the circuit protective device. However, the faults can dissipate enough energy to cause fires and other equipment damage.