radiant floor heating under driveway

[l_bilyk]

you know, to melt all the snow
has it ever been done?

 

[the intimidator]

i think your onto something there how warm do they keep a garage floor? imagine that not having to shovel snow they only proplem i can see is the cement craking and taking out one of the pipes but i guess you could repair it if something does happen im sure somewon will ruin on our happy thoughts though

 

[Bruce T]

Its fairly common in the north. Most that do do it use it under sidewalks and a few feet out of garage. Kinda like a continuation of the tubes under the garage. Works great. One guy I read (on here I believe) said that his grandpa did it but had to shut it off because all the neighborhood dogs and cats used to gather on his sidewalk to stay warm

 

[Stuart in MN]

Yes, it's available but not particularly cheap to operate. There's both hydronic heating with pex tubing (like Wirsbo) and electric heating cables (one big brand is Raychem.) You'll find it used in high end homes, and more often in public places like the front entry of hotels. The house they just finished up on This Old House on PBS had hydronic heat in the driveway.

 

[Hamptons]

For a moderate climate or a small area it certainly is a cool thing to do (no pun intended). You only need to keep the slab just above freezing.

 

[thammel]

driveway heat

I did it. I heated my driveway in my last house. Check out delta-therm on the web. I used their MI cables. It was a bear of a job and not cheap. I heated two tire tracks about 175 feet long each. Each track was about a foot wide. The total cost of materials was between 7-10 thousand dollars. I had to have a new asphalt driveway done with the garage addition and because the driveway was steep and always iced up (if you went off the driveway, you could crash into the house!) I wanted to heat the treacherous section. It was tough finding an asphalt contractor would would work with me. I laid out the wires and did all the trenching and electrical work. I installed boxes , relays, the control system and ran all the wires from my main panels. As I recall, I had 4 sections, two upper and two lower because each of the 175 foot lengths would draw two much current so I split them into two. I also had my house power uprated to 400 amps. I could give more details if desired. It worked well, but is not cheap to operate. I figured that for the few - maybe 10 at most - days a year that I needed it, that it would be worth it.

Tom

 

[MXtras]

Every runway at the Denver Airport is heated, although I do not know which method they chose to use.

Heated driveways are pretty common in newer sections of Denver also. I think many of them are electric, though.

Scott

 

[danski0224]

Fairly "common" around here in high end homes. Due to the thermal mass of the concrete, it isn't something that can be "turned on" quickly.

One driveway has a couple of miles of tubing and a 1,000,000 btu boiler just for the snowmelt system. The residence has a 2" high pressure gas main.

If you have to ask, you can't afford it- especially with gas prices.

I shovel mine.

 

[stimpy]

some of the upper end houses in the Hinsdale/Oakbrook area of chicago have them, My Step-Dad had one in his house in Oakbrook , one winter the boiler went down and the pipes froze and heaved the driveway , he didn't have it put back in when he redid the driveway , I remember it was all 3/4 copper pipe made in coil patterns and the main supply ran under the sidewalk ( funny watching a sidewalk steam in a snowstorm ) he Bought a pickup with a blade just for plowing soon after this ( and a bunch of new bushes too. )

 

[danski0224]

A glycol mix won't freeze if the boiler goes down. More expensive than plain water, but cheaper than a new driveway.

Modern radiant is done with plastic. There is a good chance the copper would have failed in time anyway from concrete contact.