snow melt

viccipe

Thanks Good Friend in Montreal!
Definetly I would not use a boiler that can not handle shock. then I gotta use separation w/ 4 way or injection. I am thinking Ray Pak cause this is an outside application. plus it can handle shock from cold water return.
i remember hearing that 150 per sq. ft. before. thanks again!

viccipe

Snow Melt Calcs made easy?

Hello everyone. A long time since I have posted.
I really have a genuine question that I am very interested. I am gonna demo and existing driveway and pour new 4" concrete pad. My preliminary calc's showed I needed apprx 2 million btus. I am trying to size boiler load. I plan on having tubing on top half of slab. I would like to insulate under pad, but afraid of sterofoam collapsing causing structual damage to new slab. the driveway is 2870 sq. ft. in Bellevue , WA Afraid snow melt load is gonna make me make big boiler.
I would like to use a flow driven boiler like Ray PAK. Wonder if i should just shoot for tire tracks and not the whole slab?
thanks a whole bunch for your opinion.

Henry

For the MOntreal area, we use 150 BTU/Ft. Yor load would be 430,500 BTU. I would never use a non condensing boiler for this appliacation. You could use a Knight for heating, hot water and snowmelt.

We once used a Pennant (because it was spec) with their cold water protection. It was just trouble both electronically and mechanicaly!

troy_8

Snowmelt

I can tell you- we removed an 8yr old raypak around 870,000mbh and installed 2-munchkin 399 boilers. The owner did all the calculations but he figured based on degree days and snow fall he saved 50% in fuel the next year. His figures, not mine. Bottom line, it was a lot less expensive to run. The customer was so happy he sent us to his parents to install snowmelt for them. We have installed a dozen condensing boilers (primary,secondary piped) with glycol running through the boilers and they all work great. Just size the boiler pumps and pipe correctly. The condensing boilers are getting bigger from everybody so boiler room space is reduced.

Mark Eatherton

Do it in true primary secondary piping..

even if it means having to set relays to handle the loads, because the controller on a Munchkin boiler WILL fire the boiler for freeze protection even though it has glycol in it, and if you simply wired the boiler pump parallel to the load pump (like I did once) it will take a LONG time and LOTS of fuel to get the boiler vesitibule above 40 degrees F...

ME

Henry

Raypak has the Cold Start option. I would not trust it for snow melting. I wood use the Knight and piped P/S. It will pay for itself really quick!

viccipe

Snow melt Bellevue, WA

Yes Mark. You and Henry are correct. I will design for a primary / secondary piping arrangement. I will use Tekmar snow cup action and being unit is outside in concrete vault I still feel a flo driven boiler like RAYPak good way to go.
thanks you and Henry very much for your support!

viccipe

Snow Melt in WA

Troy,

Thanks for that Info!!!!