People who are planning to lay some underground data cables to ensure uninterrupted connectivity need to conduct soil thermal resistivity testing before the installation begins. This article discusses some of the benefits that such an activity can bring.

Help In Selecting Appropriate Cables

Soil thermal resistivity testing can be instrumental in enabling you to select the best cables for the application. This is because the test results make it possible for you to ascertain the amount of heat that the cables will be exposed to once they are installed. This information guides you so that you select the cables which are designed to resist that kind of condition in the ground. Premature failure will therefore be avoided if your choice is informed by the results from the resistivity test.

Selecting Backfill Materials

Soil thermal resistivity testing can also help you to decide whether you should use the excavated soil as a backfill material or you should bring in soil from a different location for use as backfill. The desire to cut installation costs can lead you to be biased against trucking backfill materials from an offsite location to the cable installation site. However, the resistivity tests provide an objective way for you to decide whether it is necessary to ferry backfill material from elsewhere or use the excavated soil. The long-term impact of your choice is informed by the scientific findings from the report. The short-term need to save money will then not mislead you into making a decision which will be costly over time.

Layout Design

Soil thermal resistivity testing can also help you to decide the locations where the data cables should run on your property if site conditions don't restrict where the cables can pass. You can avoid selecting the cable route randomly by selecting where the cables should run based on the soil resistivity test results. You will therefore be able to select the most suitable areas for the cables. This can save you from incurring additional costs, such as the cost of bringing off-site backfill material discussed earlier.

Various techniques, such as using a probe, are available to test soil thermal resistivity. Contact several companies which provide resistivity testing and ask them to explain the pros and cons of those different methods. Select the company which will use the most reliable method without making the testing process very expensive. Those professionals will conduct tests at the depth where you want to install the cables.