Drift Issues

rdege · August 28

Looking for some ideas/advise. I bought a house 3 years ago. Each winter, we get snow drifts that clog the HVAC intake vent as well as the generator intake. My goal is to decrease the frequency of the drifts so that I don't have to clean the affected areas as often.

Option 1 - Remove a slat from the fence, and reposition the remaining slats so that the wind will pass through the fence (see Fix_1 pic). Not visually appealing, but has potential unless the snow fills in the gaps.

Option 2 - Stretch burlap between 2 poles to partially block the wind. The poles would be positioned in front of the AC unit.

Other ideas as appreciated, although low cost solutions are preferred :)

Thank you

-Robert

Affected Area 1:

Affected Area 2:

Snow Drift 1:

Snow Drift 2:

Fix 1:

EBEBRATT-Ed · August 28

That's a tough one.

My only thought would be to put a fence that matches the fence you have to "box in" the generator, electric meter and intake and exhaust pipes. A "L" shaped fence with a gate.

pecmsg · August 28

raise the pipes

pecmsg · August 28

what is this?

the horse shoe pipes in the corner

Jamie Hall · August 28

So long as that fence is there, you are going to have snow accumulating. A drift will form in front of a fence as well as in back of it, and — depending on exact wind direction — the house wall will also create drifting. The drifting in the pictures looks more like wind hitting the house

The fix won't.

Is there a continuation of that fence in back of the photographer? If not, you might get away with removing the panel of fence next to the house completely.

JUGHNE · August 28

Correctly locating snow fence is always a crap shoot.

I have tried it 25' away from my exposed driveway and then another 25' north of that. And if really ambitious then a third fence 25' north of the second one.

Snow fence is 50' X 4' tall. Wood lath with wire supports. We just call it snow fence regardless of it's use.

On the exact north side of the house, where the exhausts are, there is a 4-5' drift about 8' north of the house and the ground is clear along the house.

What happens for you if there is no fence??

Intplm. · August 29

@rdege Can you install a spindle-type fence line, replacing two or three of the panels? Removing a slat from each panel might help, but it would be an experiment over time, depending on the weather conditions.

HomerJSmith · August 30

That snow looks like powder snow. I know it's not going to be power all winter long, but shovels work great. However, I'm kinda lazy, so I would try a leaf blower and go inside and have a beer and turn on "Housewives of New Jersey".

Kaos · August 30

Extending the intake up above the drift height would be the simplest. You don't have any openings there so there so there is plenty of height to bring it up by a foot or two to clear those snow drifts.

Jamie Hall · August 30

I think the problem isn't so much the heating as the generator? They really don't like snow inside… it doesn't play well with the electrics…

psb75 · August 30

….and support the pvc pipes.

rdege · September 1

Thank you for all the replies. I'll try my best to respond to all of the suggestions:

@EBEBRATT-Ed - I could seal off the area with an L-shaped fence . However, the fence is made of vinyl, and thus would be an expensive possible fix.
@pecmsg- I raised the height of the intake pipe last year , and now it's 3.5ft off the ground. Unfortunately, the snow still managed to clog the intake pipe multiple times last winter. However, it was not because of snow accumulation. In both instances, there was only about 1-2ft of snow on the ground, well below the intake pipe opening. Instead, I believe it was caused by a combination of snowfall and high windows in that area.
@pecmsg - The horse shoe pipes in the corner are for the tankless water heaters
@Jamie Hall - The fence extends about another 100ft beyond the photographer . Plus, I don't own the right side of the fence, so I can't remove it.
@JUGHNE - I have no idea what will happen if I remove the fence . It's been there since I moved in. The only issue is that I only own the fence behind the generator. The fence to the right of the generator is owned by my neighbor.
@Intplm. - I did a dry run of that proposed solution , and attached the image to this post (Fix_1.jpg). I won't know if this will work until after this upcoming winter. However, I do know that the slats float in the fence channel. So if I move forward with fix, I'll need to figure out how to keep the slats in place so that they don't slide all back together.
@HomerJSmith - That's an interesting option . However, I would first need to snowblow a path about 70ft around the back of the house to get to that area first, before using a leaf blower.
@Kaos - The intake is already above the drift height , which I discussed in answer #2. However, to try and prevent the intake from getting clogged, I recently attached a 4in pipe to the 2in intake pipe to see if that would deter the high winds from cloggin the pipe (see Fix_2.jpg)
@Jamie Hall - Both are a pain to deal with when they don't work . I discovered that the snow will clog the generator air filter, thus depriving it of oxygen.

Thanks again for all the input. Another idea, what about installing a burlap fence line to block the high winds? Would that be helpful? (see pic Fix_3.png)

-Robert

Fix_3.png

Fix_2.jpg

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