Prevention of freezing in outside mains pipe

[Gasmanjack]

Does anyone out there have experience of electrical means of preventing outside mains pipes from freezing up?

[sandyRoe]

Google 'electric pipe heat tape' I haven't used it. When I wanted to buy some during the last freeze it was all sold out..

[craigmac81]

yep called trace heating there is different brands but the best is raychem its self regulating (ie it only heats up the part of the pipe thats starting to freeze) this cuts down the running costs its simple to install you just need a 13 amp spur or a 20 amp d.p switch depending on the length of run and just tape the cable to the pipe