Heating cable results

[smatofu]

Hello,

In case any fellow palm growers are interested:

heating cable 160 ft, 800W

about 4 wraps over a 6ft palm + blanket

temperature increase:

heavy wind: +5F

no wind: +15F

 

Of course, don't make too many wraps and turn off when the weather is warm, because otherwise you will cook your palm. Never wrap in any unbreathable plastics.

 

S.

 

Edited January 21, 2022 by smatofu

[Allen]

Cool info.  But seems like a low heat increase for 800W.  On a 6' palm with 2 100 string mini lights costing $3 each and 80 watts total I get 10+ degrees with a single wrap of frost cloth. 

Edited January 21, 2022 by Allen

[D. Morrowii]

How were you wrapping the tree and where were you getting the temps from?  I got similar results with Christmas lights as well but I just had a frost cover over a 3’er. 

[smatofu]

A few reasons why I chose a heating cable vs lights:

1. I want to wrap my palms with a blanket. Lights are high temp point heat. I don't know if lights would work with a blanket. A cable heat is spread more evenly. My cable is warm, not hot.

2. Extension cords, simplicity, reliability, water: I don't want to use any extension cords. I want to the setup to be safe and reliable: no burning bulbs, no water ground faults etc.

 

[But seems like a low heat increase for 800W.]

the cable wraps about 6 palms + other plants. I also don't want to overheat. 

[where were you getting the temps from?]

I put a remote thermometer behind the blanket. 

 

[Swolte]

Any pics?

[smatofu]

4 minutes ago, Swolte said:

Any pics?

Maybe I will post something later, but there is not much to see: a wrapped palm trunk with a cable entering the wrap at the bottom and exiting at the top. 

 

[akaranus]

I put heating cables (selfregulating at 65°C) to heat roots of my bizzi in 9a european zone..i have tried already with 12 of them, always cool wet period suck life from them in few yrs...turning on during the night..so far so good, when drop below zero i am making plastic greenhouse above to save leaves...in few winters will know is it working

[akaranus]

Hoping when roots go deeper in few yrs where are always warmer temps it will easily pass throught winter period...

Edited January 21, 2022 by akaranus

[smatofu]

7 minutes ago, akaranus said:

I put heating cables (selfregulating at 65°C) to heat roots of my bizzi in 9a european zone..i have tried already with 12 of them, always cool wet period suck life from them in few yrs...turning on during the night..so far so good, when drop below zero i am making plastic greenhouse above to save leaves...in few winters will know is it working

 

You have a more advanced setup! Great! Mine is simple: I wrapped the cable directly over palm trunks and cover with a blanket. 

[65°C] My setup gets nowhere near those temperatures! My temperatures were between 35-45F. I turn off manually when the weather is warm.  

[Allen]

1 hour ago, smatofu said:

A few reasons why I chose a heating cable vs lights:

1. I want to wrap my palms with a blanket. Lights are high temp point heat. I don't know if lights would work with a blanket. A cable heat is spread more evenly. My cable is warm, not hot.

2. Extension cords, simplicity, reliability, water: I don't want to use any extension cords. I want to the setup to be safe and reliable: no burning bulbs, no water ground faults etc.

 

[But seems like a low heat increase for 800W.]

the cable wraps about 6 palms + other plants. I also don't want to overheat. 

[where were you getting the temps from?]

I put a remote thermometer behind the blanket. 

 

I forgot you wrapped 6 palms.   I have a graphing temp sensor on 5 palms hanging close to the spear inside wrap.  It keeps up with 48 hours and records all time high/low and has a low temp alarm.  Here is the current pic of the last 48 hours.  3 of these palms on the graph are only  trunk wrapped with a single wrap of burlap over the lights.  I think the low last night was 18F.  The lights are currently off.  On the chart the 48, 40, 32, 24, 16, 8, 0 is the last 48 hours graphed,   If you look at the graph you can see the purple where the thermocube switched on above the 40 mark, stayed on for a while and switched off and on.  You can see the temp went from 35F to about 48 and on the red one climbed more slowly to about 45 and switched off.  It is one of the frost cloth wrapped palms.  The 3 lower ones are the burlap only trunk wrapped palms.  The sensor is in one wrap of burlap.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Allen

[akaranus]

Above for me is lees priblem..i see occasionaly 25F but with this technique i hope to solve wet cool problem, especialy for bizzie is biggest problem...these cabels are great, i think they can keep trunk warm enough in case of deep minus..

[D. Morrowii]

On 1/21/2022 at 2:05 PM, smatofu said:

A few reasons why I chose a heating cable vs lights:

1. I want to wrap my palms with a blanket. Lights are high temp point heat. I don't know if lights would work with a blanket. A cable heat is spread more evenly. My cable is warm, not hot.

2. Extension cords, simplicity, reliability, water: I don't want to use any extension cords. I want to the setup to be safe and reliable: no burning bulbs, no water ground faults etc.

 

[But seems like a low heat increase for 800W.]

the cable wraps about 6 palms + other plants. I also don't want to overheat. 

[where were you getting the temps from?]

I put a remote thermometer behind the blanket. 

 

smatofu, those are good points. The reason I asked is I have some cables and some lights. I plan on trying a few different methods to see what works best for my situation. Right now the majority of the palms I have are in containers so I bring them in as needed. In the coolest years where I’m at, I think Ill have 4-5 in ground palms that will need some level of protection to prevent damage. If we have one of those arctic blasts then I’ll probably be in trouble! Anyway I enjoy seeing the different ideas people come up with to solve their problems.