Electric Driveway Snow Melter Thingie (house, heat pump, live)

[scone]

I'm starting to think about this "shoveling the snow out of the driveway" thing, and while I could probably stand to burn a calorie or two, my lazy evil self says "why not just hook up a solar electric panel to some wiring in the driveway?" I've seen ads for this in Fine Homebuilding, and I have a system something like it for heating my bathroom floor, which works well. So... does anybody have this, or have they seen it?

[NH2NCMom]

Originally Posted by scone

I'm starting to think about this "shoveling the snow out of the driveway" thing, and while I could probably stand to burn a calorie or two, my lazy evil self says "why not just hook up a solar electric panel to some wiring in the driveway?" I've seen ads for this in Fine Homebuilding, and I have a system something like it for heating my bathroom floor, which works well. So... does anybody have this, or have they seen it?

Can't say I have, but I just love your description - reps if I can give them

[newhampshiregirl]

My father has a heated paved walkway from the municipal sidewalk to the stairs to his office. Works like a charm, but it is a small area.

We have a 350-foot long paved driveway (with 14% grade for about 100 feet of it). Guess we'll have to keep paying those plowing bills.

[jthibodeau]

Two systems come to mind. Electrically heated cable and the circulation of warm fluids. Both would be expensive to install and, heaven forbid, repair. As far as electric goes, you better hang on to your hat when the bill comes in too! Also, with the antifreeze water based system, unless you have a creative way to heat, the cost can be prohibitive.

These systems may prevent the formation of ice. However, with a substantial snow storm, I highly doubt that the system could keep up with the snow fall or you may have to wait days for a total clearing. Surface temps appear not to be or are not strong enough to handle heavy amounts.

Heck, I've thought about this same idea from time to time but I still have the plow, snow blower and, yuck, a shovel to handle the job.

[scone]

Originally Posted by jthibodeau

Two systems come to mind. Electrically heated cable and the circulation of warm fluids. Both would be expensive to install and, heaven forbid, repair. As far as electric goes, you better hang on to your hat when the bill comes in too! Also, with the antifreeze water based system, unless you have a creative way to heat,

That's why I'd go solar. The system I'm thinking of is low-voltage, like garden lighting, and sits just underneath a "loose" driveway, not asphalt or concrete. I can't stand asphalt, partly because of the smell, and partly because people track it onto the floors in summer, on a hot day, and getting it off a wood floor without damage is a pain. And poured concrete tends to heave a lot. I've been impressed with the interlocking paver system, it's easy and you can change the driveway if you like.

I'm looking at the solar panels on stalks that are commonly used around here. If you install it yourself, it's pretty cheap, and my DH really wants to do it. I do like radiant heat 'tar muchly. I've used it all through this house, with PEX tubing, and I'll do it again once I get to NH. It's much cheaper to run than any other system, and easy to install.

I don't mind plowing per se, that's what I do here, but I'd just as soon be tinkering with something more innovative, just on principle. Somebody has to be an early adopter, I suppose, and the DH and I are dyed in the wool techies, after all. In any case, the new place will definitely be a laboratory for new techniques, especially in saving resources and energy. I've done some of that in my current home, and I'm eager to do it again. Each house I build or remodel has improvements over the last one-- someday I'll get it right.

[JFRRACING]

then you could go lay your lazy evil self in your driveway when it's -20 out...lol...

[Ken E]

How do the interlocking pavers work with frost in the ground. I dont think i've ever seen any paver driveways N.H., but most places i've lived in N.H. were on dirt roads with gravel driveways. Just interested.

[scone]

Originally Posted by Ken E

How do the interlocking pavers work with frost in the ground. I dont think i've ever seen any paver driveways N.H., but most places i've lived in N.H. were on dirt roads with gravel driveways. Just interested.

Fine Homebuilding has articles on it from time to time, and they are based out of Taunton, Connecticut, with many of their profiles in New England. The pavers I'm thinking of "lock" together in a pattern like hex tiles or spiral Moroccan tiles. It wouldn't hold up against a really bad frost heave, but nothing does. And the pavers aren't destroyed, you just take them up, dig out the heave, and relay them. Also, the rain goes through them, so it's good in tricky drainage situations. There's one style called "grass-crete" that you can grow a lawn through, and still park a truck on it. It is a bit of work, for sure-- if you don't like laying bricks, you wouldn't enjoy doing it.

P.S. JRR: I'd rather put my lazy evil self in a nice hot tub in a sunroom overlooking the -20 degree landscape! I may be weird, but I'm not stupid... So, when I get all that finished, you all can over over and party, I'll have the microbrews and the cabernet on tap...

[Yankeehombre]

Usually those are done with radiant plastic tubing you might use for a radiant heated floor (generally coiled into cement slab)as out in the west. Maybe a better bet would be solar roof collectors with boiler back-up.Maybe a geothermal system on a heat pump may be able hold its own against a N. H. winter, using a heat pump, tapping to an aquifer. I'm sure you'd need to flood the system with the anti freeze that can be used for hydronic heating systems to prevent freeze-ups since it can get quite cold for weeks at a time with no assurance that you'll garner enough from the solar panels to do the job. Once it froze up, You'd have no alternative but wait for spring, only to find you're driveway had been all broken-up due to the thermal expansion of the freezing tubing.

Who but an oil tycoon could think of a heated driveway with heating fuel hovering in the $5.00 range, without some sort of solar powering. Ditto for electric. It would be terribly environmentally irresponsible to use the acid-rain producing the coal burning electricity plants that way, even if you had piles of money to pay the bills.

[seamusnh]

Hmmmm... I wonder if www.ElectricDrivewaySnowMelterThingie.com (broken link) is taken?