Little known fact: heat tape 
is a specialty product that requires finesse.                   


And it seems like it should be simple, right? It gets warm. It melts the snow. Where’s the finesse? Well, installing heat tape requires understanding the product, knowing how to do the calculations required to determine the right amount of heat tape, and knowing how best to install it and use it.

There are differing philosophies on heat tape.
One philosophy is, “Hey, let’s install as much tape as we can!” Which is a bad idea. Too much heat tape causes long-term problems. It can raise the electric bill by hundreds of dollars a month. It can overload circuits. And, in worst-case scenarios, it can cause thousands of dollars in damage. (This isn’t theoretical. It’s a fact. We’ve been called in by people whose electric bills had soared to as high as $900 a month, and saw one improperly wired heat tape project cause $3,000 in damage to the homeowner’s electrical system.)

You can probably already guess our philosophy.
At Olsen Electric, our philosophy is pegged (big surprise) to doing the job right the first time. That includes accounting for both cost effectiveness and aesthetics.

We run the numbers.
We calculate the optimum amount of tape for the square footage of your roof. We’re also going to tell you to not run it at night. In the dead of winter, it’s just too cold. At night, the tape won’t do anything. We’ve checked with several manufacturers, who confirm this useful but seemingly evasive tidbit of information.

We also like better, more pleasing products.
We work with a better-looking product that hides the heat cable, so you don’t see it. The product is also metal, so it offers better heat conduction. We’re all for heat tape—and we’re all for doing heat tape the way that looks and works best. 
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To learn more about our heat tape work, or to get a bid your project,