Snow Melt Design

Tim Doran

1/2" tubing 12" oc will have pretty limited performance. What are your/your customers expectations?

Tim D.

[Deleted User]

Snow Melt Design

I've never done a snow melt design and I'm going to install one using 1/2" pex max lenght 200 feet per loop with bubble foil underneath and 12" spacing. Does that sound right for central Massachusetts. Any help would be appreciated.

Daniel Paul_2

Snow Melt

Every snow melt or heating job needs to start with a design. Your localheating supply house should be able to help you out there.
We have done a couple of these in the last couple of months. We design them ourselves using Wirsbo ADS software program. Most of them we design for a surface temp. of 37 degrees and on 9 inch centers (this is because it is easier to tei off to the wire mesh). Make sure you use flat wire mesh and not the rolled stuff, a whole lot easier to work with. They all use 5/8 tubing and you need to watch your head loss when it come to circ length. (somewhere around 250 usually works).

The insulation is another subject. We prefer to use Slab Shield this is a foam/foil/foam product from Low-E insulation.

Your also going to need to think about a ontrol stratigy.

Hope this Helps
Danny

Tom Stayer

re design

I have extensive experience with designing snow melt systems. I used to be the point man for Burnham and generated designs for folks all over the US. Please call me at 1-800-524-1102 ext 41 and I will help you.

I would feel more comfortable with using ¾ Pex on 10" centers. But there is more with gpm, heat loss, etc. I will be at the number above on Monday after 10.