A lot of our clients inquire about heat tape. Here are some of our thoughts to that regard:
Melting off the snow and ice of the roof is never our favorite. In freezing cold temperatures where you melt here and there, it will freeze again causing more ice and problems somewhere else. To contrast this ineffective method, we make and sell snow fence and snow guard systems for roofs.
The best insulating material there is, is trapped air. Snow consists of more than 95% air. Correctly trapped snow is the best insulation your roof can wish for in the winter. We have snow fence systems engineered that can withstand 30 – 40 feet of snow at a time, which is the standard in high mountainous areas. The more snow you keep on your roof in the winter the more it helps you insulate your building against heat loss. if you still encounter ice damming on your roof, the insulation should be addressed at the same time you replace your roof. It is easiest to add some more inches to the insulation in the attic where otherwise no access is available except when the roof is off allows you to access the areas via small opening on the roof.
Ice melt or other roof heating products also have two more negative effects. The first being the tremendous electricity it consumes to heat your roof in the winter on the outside. Second, and this is probably the strongest argument against it, is the fact that when you rely on the ice melt system to keep your building ice free, and build the entire building around the fact that it will, in a case of a power outage or the frequent system failure, you are back to square one where you easily could just fix the ice damming problem and not only not pay for it ever again, but enjoy a solid roof system for practically forever.
Learn more about snow abatement systems here: https://spenglerindustries.com/snow-abatement/
