It might seem contradictious to heat up the floor construction in a cold store, - but it is actually a necessity in order to protect the building.
In cold rooms and cold stores where the temperature is constantly between -20 and -30°C, coldness will still be given off to the surroundings even though the floor is well insulated. This means that the materials which are in contact with the ground, such as foundation and floor areas, will absorb the cold and the ground will freeze. The water content in the ground/soil will expand and this can cause considerable damages due to frost erosion. The same problem also appears in ice stadiums, which are artificially frozen.
The super cooling problems can be avoided by installing a DEVI frost protection system consisting of Deviheat heating cables controlled by a Devireg thermostat. The heating cables build up a border between the cold surface and the underground and maintains a frost free soil temperature.
Frost erosion is avoided; foundations and underfloors are kept in good shape; and simple and inexpensive installation compared to waterbased systems.
We recommend a Deviheat cable with max 10W/m, i.e. Deviheat DTIP-8 or DTIP-10. The CC distance should not exceed 50cm. Furthermore we recommend the use of two parallel systems for safety reasons.
For regulations we recommend the Devireg 330.
