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Manifold manifolds, or: Driveway ice-melt

PRR
PRR Member Posts: 226
edited March 3 in Radiant Heating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOWiMca4vjk
This guy in Buffalo put hot water tubing under his driveway. I have read of that in old hotels but not as a residential proposition. His cellar is two on-demand water heaters and many many tubing manifolds. Then he opens a hatch and more manifolds!! Really a lot of work down there. (And I think the house-heat is a different burner...)

He was away some days and they had an ice-storm. He runs the system to melt the ice. (If he'd been home he would have melted as fast as it came down, but he wasn't.) At first he gets (and explains) "bridging". After the system ran for 9 hours the ice was essentially cleared and mostly dry. He figures the cost for this ice-event as under $16.

I know I can't get ice removed that cheap; I think that particular 'event' could take more than $16 of salt (which would kill his neighbor's lawn and he's got no good place to store salt). Of course the *installation* of that many manifolds and miles(?) of PEX ain't cheap, also the cumulative reliability of that many joints.
No connection, I don't know this guy, I dunno if he done it good. I have never (knowingly) seen an ice-melt system or its economics. Interesting.
EDIT ____________
Same guy shows an Xmas blizzard, and has a whole sequence about the building of this system.
Xmas blizzard
Building the system
GGross

Comments

  • Big Ed_4
    Big Ed_4 Member Posts: 3,005
    A snow melt system needs to be turned on before the storm arives . 4 hours + , you need to heat the slab to 42* to melt as it comes down ....

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  • PRR
    PRR Member Posts: 226
    > needs to be turned on before
    As he shows in that clip, it can work. Slow, and it really helps to move the slush.
    The Xmas storm shows it not working, even with pre-heat, until the slop stopped.
    You may want to run through his playlist of way too many videos showing all different storms and strategies.
    I'll pass because instead of 50 feet I have 500 feet and no city-gas here.
    GGross
  • Big Ed_4
    Big Ed_4 Member Posts: 3,005
    Drainage is important , the only liquid around is in your driveway . It has to go somewhere . You don't want to create an ice dam ....

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

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