Take a look at our presentation, ‘Radiant Heat Saves Lives,’ from the Design Outdoors Canada show, March 22 & 23 in Toronto Canada which we attended with our Canadian distributor, Power Plant Supply Company.
Ice Dams, Snow Loads, IciclesBy Steven D. Bench Managing Member, Heatizon Systems |
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Heatizon Systems products, and their approved applications, proudly carry the ETL Mark for the United States and Canada verifying that they have been tested to and successfully passed the stringent tests established by both UL and CSA. It is important to note that Heatizon Systems Roof Snow and Ice Melt products are the only products available today that are listed for under-roof covering applications. All of Heatizon Systems products are proudly made in the United States of America and carry a “Made in the USA” label. In order for Heatizon to provide its customers with the highest quality products possible it closely monitors and controls the materials and manufacturing processes used. Tuff Cable and ZMesh heating elements come with a 25 Year Warranty against material defects and like all of Heatizon Systems products they carry industry leading and precedent setting warranties. Heatizon Systems makes products that are used for each of the following applications: For additional information on Heatizon Systems products please visit www.heatizon.com
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Damage caused to buildings, people and property by snow and ice build-up and removal, ice dams, and icicles amounts to millions of dollars each year. The effectiveness of the methods historically used to manage snow and ice related problems has been spotty at best. The traditional methods used to prevent these large dollar problems fall into three categories: “Icicle Management”, “Water Channeling”, and “Elimination”. Each of these three categories traditionally includes one or more of the following approaches:
Icicle Management – This category encompasses those efforts designed to eliminate or otherwise manage the icicles along the eave line and do not attempt to address the causes nor problems resulting from ice dams. Traditional methods used to manage icicles along the drip-edge of the eave include: nothing or the “ignore them and they will eventually go away, hopefully before something or someone is damaged”, approach, labor intensive and dangerous manual removal, and expensive and often times cosmetically unattractive high voltage cables or hot liquid tubing sandwiched between two layers of metal.
Water Channeling – Included in channeling are high voltage cables that are attached to the top of the roof covering material. Installed in a fashion that looks like the letters “W” or “V” high voltage cables are attached to the shingles or other roof covering material with a variety of proprietary clips. Once attached to the shingles and energized these high voltage products are designed to provide a channel for water, created by melting snow and ice, to travel off of the roof.
Elimination – This approach is designed to eliminate snow and ice from both the roof in a manner that reduces or entirely eliminates icicles from the eave edge and eliminates the potential damage caused by ice dams. Historical experiments designed to eliminate snow and ice from the roof included partially effective and prohibitively expensive experiments such as heating the attic space and attaching hot liquid filled tubing to the underside of the sub-roof. Unfortunately these experiments most often result in exorbitant energy costs and many times contributed to and/or intensified the problem originally targeted for solution.
Heatizon Systems’ patent pending radiant roof snow melt and deicing products are the only products available today that are installed on top of the sub-roof and below the roof covering material and designed to eliminate snow and ice from the roof and manage the icicles along the eave edge. Period!
In addition Heatizon Systems radiant roof snow melt and de-icing products are:
May 12, 2006
By Steven D. Bench
Managing Member
Heatizon Systems
When people associated with the radiant heating and radiant snow melting industry use the words “ZMesh”, “Golden Mesh”, “Z Mesh”, or just plain “Mesh” usually they are referring to a durable line of low voltage electric products made by Heatizon Systems and used for Radiant Roof Snow Melt and De-icing, Radiant Floor Warming and Radiant Heating.
Designed to be installed on and under sub-floors and on sub-roofs, ZMesh provides a nice uniform heat and it is plenty robust to satisfy the demands of discriminating radiant heat, radiant roof snow melting and de-icing, and radiant floor warming customers. In addition, gold colored, ZMesh delivers unparallel performance and is backed by an industry leading twenty-five (25) year warranty.
What about the nails, screws, and/or staples used to attach certain flooring and roofing materials? No need to worry about nailing, screwing or stapling through ZMesh as long as the nail, screw, or staple does not come into contact with anything else electronically conductive. In other words, ZMesh should never be installed over or under metal roof decking, valley metal, metal flashing, etc. or metal roofing materials such as steel or copper but its durable sister Tuff Cable may be installed over and under such products. ZMesh can be installed, however, under all non-conductive roof shingles and nearly all floor coverings.
Unlike its line voltage and hydronic radiant heating, radiant in-floor and under floor warming and radiant roof snow melt and de-icing competitors, ZMesh is very simple and easy to repair in the event it gets cut or damaged. Repairing ZMesh requires a customized copper splice plate and a bit of solider. No one else in the radiant heating, radiant floor warming and radiant roof snow melt and de-icing business can honestly make that claim.
How much floor build-up does ZMesh require? Since ZMesh is only 1/16th of an inch thick and does not require a bed of light weight concrete or other cementous material to draw the heat away from it the answer to this question is “very little”! As a result using ZMesh avoids the expense of a cementious mud bed, the cost of the extra structural integrity necessary to support the weight of the concrete and the challenges created by the need for the additional framing required by radiant high or line voltage and radiant hydronic or hot water alternatives. Once again, ZMesh requires little or no floor build-up.
For radiant in-floor and under floor warming and radiant heating applications ZMesh may be installed in the floor (on top of the sub-floor and below the floor covering) or under the floor between the joist space. As a matter of fact, Heatizon Systems was one of the pioneers of retrofitting its products into the joist space of existing structures.
ZMesh is a cut to length in the field product rather than a fixed length product like most all of its UL listed radiant line or high voltage competitors. The ability to vary the length of the ZMesh enables the installer to adjust the radiant in-floor heating, radiant roof snow melt and de-icing or radiant floor warming system to fit the area rather than requiring that the area to adjust to the radiant in-floor heating, radiant roof snow melting and de-icing or floor warming system.
Available in lengths that extend from 50 feet to 400 feet and widths of 9 and 12 inches, ZMesh is plenty versatile to satisfy the needs of most projects. In addition ZMesh has the ability to deliver up to 11.5 watts or over 39 Btu’s per linear foot so it is plenty robust to heat entire spaces, warm spacious floors, and manage the risks of ice dam related roof damage.
Heatizon Systems cares about its customers and their property as a result all of its products have been tested to UL Standards and has earned the privledge of being listed by ETL, an internationally recognized testing laboratory approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Heatizon Systems products are proudly manufactured in the United States of America and may be purchased by fine distributors located across North America.
By Steven D. Bench
Managing Member, Heatizon Systems
Heatizon Systems makes roof snow melt and deicing products that utilize one of two different heating elements, Tuff Cable or ZMesh. Tuff Cable, a copper cable surrounded by an insulator which is surrounded by a jacket, is designed to be utilized in a Heatizon Heatsink Kit under medal and other electronically conductive roof covering materials. ZMesh, a bronze product that is approximately 1/16th of an inch thick, is designed to be installed under non-conductive roof covering materials such as composite, shake, asphalt, and fiberglass shingles as well as membrane roof covering materials.
In the testing performed by Intertek Testing Services N A Inc., immediately prior to ZMesh receiving its listing to UL Standards and CSA regulations, it was noted that ZMesh, when surrounded by insulation on all six (6) sides, reaches a temperature of approximately 125 degrees F at normal operating conditions. Of course when melting snow and ice off of roofs ZMesh is not surrounded by insulation and the roof temperature at the time the ZMesh is energized is typically be between 30 and 38 degrees F resulting in an expected operating temperature substantially below 125 degrees F. In the event the roof covering manufacturer establishes a particular maximum exposure temperature for his product that is below 125 degrees F it is very easy to control the maximum temperature achieved by the ZMesh using a temperature probe that shuts the system off in the event ZMesh exceeds the maximum set point.
When selecting which roof covering materials may be put over ZMesh it is important to obtain answers the following questions:
Over the past eleven years, ZMesh has been successfully installed and operated under many projects that have also utilized membrane roof materials. These projects include the Ramirez Home is Salt Lake City, UT, the Post Office in Ketchum, ID, and Sarnafil’s membrane roof covering manufacturing facility in Canton, MA.
In the event you need additional information of Heatizon Systems ZMesh roof snow melt and deicing products please do not hesitate to contact us.
For additional information on Heatizon Systems products please visit www.heatizon.com
