Sure wish I had put radiant heat in the driveway!

SteveL · Mar 24, 2013

Got about 8-10 inches of snow today and after shoveling the driveway three times, I really wish that I had installed radiant heat under the concrete when I put it in 7 years ago.

I told my wife tonight that if we ever move to another house in a climant area that gets snow. I'm doing it. She giggled a little but didn't say no so I figure that I now have her approval.

Anyone here have radiant heat under the driveway and if so, how do you like it and what did it cost?

koditten · Mar 24, 2013

I have it my shop, but I would not have it in my drive. Finding a place for the melted snow to go after it has turned to water would be the *****. As soon as the water leaves the heated drive it would turn to ice. The engineering that would have to go into the drive would kill you in cost. It would be cheaper to just have a good sno-blower. You could have a really good s. blower for the cost of the drive. Besides, I love running the tractor and blower.

Of course if the snow is a rare occurence, than this would change my response.

Later

KO

bmwpower · Mar 24, 2013

Depends on your driveway length. Would be cool. Seem to remember someone on here with this setup a couple years ago. If I recall correctly, supplying (electrical) power became an issue.

Norcal · Mar 24, 2013

Would it be electric or hydronic (hot water)? Thank goodness I do not live in godforsaken country where this is needed.

CNGsaves · Mar 25, 2013

There's a MN guy here on GJ that did put radiant heat inside a sidewalk!!

I'm sure there's some high-end houses in Canada that have them . . . any pics from the great white north??

Jagmandave · Mar 25, 2013

I have a friend who's driveway is about 200 ft long, uphill, and sits on the north side of his house, it gets no sunshine in the winter at all, perfect candidate for radiant heating. However, the $100K +++ cost put him off. He bought a nice Honda track driven snowblower instead, for the three times a year (this season) he needs to clear the driveway.

I agree that it would be really cool to have, but boy howdy is it spendy. I don't think runoff is really an issue as it never freezes, it's just like rainwater. If you crowned the driveway slightly it would help I'd guess, but a healthy slope would make it work that much better....

aka Larry · Mar 25, 2013

If you need radiant heat for a driveway that is a sign you need to move.

38Chevy454 · Mar 25, 2013

Asphalt (black) driveway melt off snow much better than concrete (light grey). Use solar melting and occasional snow blower or tractor with balde when it is deep.

RKA · Mar 25, 2013

Shoveling? That's your first problem. A decent snowblower is $1000 give or take and will last you 20 years.

If that won't do it for you for one reason or the other (health issues?), and you had planned on re-doing your driveway, it can make sense as long as the driveway isn't too big (over 50 ft?).

ShiftedSolutions · Mar 25, 2013

A local builder in my area has it on his driveway and sidewalk to his shop. It is awesome. No salting needed, no shoveling... instead it just melts. He set the grade on his driveway to accomodate for the runoff of water.

jay8s · Mar 25, 2013

a little gas and a match can remove the snow for a fraction of the cost.

bgarrett · Mar 25, 2013

Not electric Radiant but PEX with hot water. Just have a loop for the driveway and a shutoff valve on the manifold for that area. That sounds like a wise move and inexpensive

W_KY · Mar 25, 2013

We did this for my sister's house. She lives at the top of the hill with a concrete driveway that is about 400 yards long. The hill portion is about 200 yards. They have a large outdoor wood stove. We ran pex like product in the wheel tracks. It just circulates hot water through the pipe.

It really only does a good job if you get a head start before the snow starts falling. You can't let the snow build up and then turn it on. Even then it only does about two 1 ft wide sections. He still has a four wheel drive JD tractor for clearing it.

They are in the concrete business so had all the skills and knowledge to do. I was just a laborer.

Kevin54 · Mar 25, 2013

That's one reason I went with blacktop instead of concrete. Oh...and money was part of the reason too. But my drive will melt and be dry before my concrete ever started thinking about melting. Heat under a drive would be great if the weather got real bad. The bad thing is that it would cost a little chunk of change. You'd have to have a think insulation under PEX, then a larger water heater with a pump. It might also be worth looking into one of the outside boilers that a lot of people use to heat a home. Use it to heat a garage plus the driveway.

Kevin54 · Mar 25, 2013

Just out of curiosity, and I know there are a lot of guys out there that have time on their hands to do some inventing....But to go along with the above, I wonder if a person had a barrel stove, and wrap it with copper pipe, add a pump away from the stove, have some sort of expansion tank, if water could be heated enough to thaw a driveway out. One would have to run some sort of AntiFreeze in it so it wouldn't freeze when not running. :dunno:

PAToyota · Mar 25, 2013

I've designed it for a couple industrial setups. Typically we do it for processing plants that have refrigeration or freezers - then you can use the waste heat from the refrigeration systems for snowmelt and the heat is basically free of charge. It particularly comes in handy at truck docks, which are hard to plow. You have to use a loader to carry the snow out of the way.

You're going to spend some money setting up a boiler and running it to clear any sizable amount of driveway...

thammel · Mar 25, 2013

I did install a heated driveway in my last house. It was electric - delta-therm MI cable. The asphalt driveway aimed straight at the house (downhill) and it never got sun. So when it was time to add another layer of asphalt I bit the bullet. I did the install myself. Logic on electric was that it would only get used a handfull of times per year and I wouldn't have to worry about freezing pipes, boiler and the such. It was not cheap and cost about 10k$. This was 13 years ago. I had 4 separate circuits of 30-40 amps at 240 volts each. There was a buried temperature sensor, surface water sensor( as I recall this failed so I put in a timer) and switches in the garage to control everything. There was a lot of trenching, electric work, conduit and laying the cable out on the driveway - had to be stapled down to the old driveway. I had essentially two tire tracks that I think were 175 feet long each. The system worked great! I will say that the total installation was one of the most tiring jobs I've taken on. It was also a challenge finding an asphalt contractor who was willing to work with me on this. Oh, for this and just general improvement, I had an extra 200 amps brought to the house so I had a total of 400 amps.

Sad to say (in a sense) divorce came and I had to sell. On the positive side, I now have a level driveway and my new garage has 12' ceilings (only 10' at the old house)!
Tom

oldldh · Mar 29, 2013

Move south to the snow-free zones....

Sure wish I had put radiant heat in the driveway!

SteveL

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