Heat your driveway

Typically, a snow-melting system combines hot water and antifreeze running through a series of pipes. Or it may use an electric current, either high or low voltage. The process works in a similar way to radiant heating floor systems in homes.

Steve Bench is a manager for a company that installs heated driveways and snow-melting systems. He says his company will work out a melting plan according to geographic location and conditions. The time it takes to melt the snow depends on how much energy is running through the system and what the variables are.

"But in most cases, if you get a snowmelt system turned on a half hour or so before it starts to snow and keep it on while it's snowing, you'll generally have very little, if any, accumulation," Bench says. "If you do have a slight accumulation and leave the system on for just an hour or two after it stops snowing, in a very high percent of the cases, there's no snow at all.

The ideal time to install a heated driveway is during initial construction. But the system can also be placed in existing driveways without having to tear out any concrete or asphalt. The system works for sidewalks, too.

How the system works

Automated sensors kick on based on a combination of temperature and moisture. So when you wake up in the morning or come home from work, your driveway may already be cleared.

"There's a self-drying head on top of an activator and there's also a temperature probe," Bench says. "Anytime the ambient temperature or the slab temperature -- depending on which version you're using -- is 38° F. or colder and there's moisture falling on the self-drying head, then it turns the systems on. Once those two conditions no longer simultaneously occur, then the systems would turn off after some period of time."

Don't let winter snow pile up; melt it off with a heated driveway.

Learn more

www.heateddriveway.com
www.chiff.com/a/heated-driveways.htm