Since the development of modern aviation, the formation of ice on aerodynamic surfaces has been an important topic of study.  It has been most critical in aviation because icing accidents have a high probability of being fatal.  In energy production applications, such as wind turbines, blade icing can reduce power production efficiency and increase structural loads. Active ice protection systems have thus been developed using mechanical, thermal, or chemical methods.  The thermal method is the only one that can both prevent and remove ice formations.  Nowadays, hot air (i.e., bleed air from engines) thermal ice protection is used for commercial aircraft primary structures that are composed of metals. Composite structures are more suited to electrothermal ice protection systems than to hot air technology because bleed air is too hot and can cause structural damage to the composite.  Design criteria for electrothermal systems heavily stand or fall on heating elements’ properties.  Thus, within this work a study was conducted on the thermal efficiency, and temperature uniformity with consideration for manufacturability, availability, and potential impact of physical properties of three different heating element materials: constantan, carbon fiber, and carbon nanotube networks.  Tests were performed on flat heater coupons in an icing wind tunnel.  Infrared surface temperature measurements and de-icing time measurements revealed that the performance of the different materials did not differ considerably if all were driven by the same nominal power. Rather, the line spacing between the heating elements was the dominant influencing factor.