Ask the Architect

Heating a driveway

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Q. I read your column in which you compared electric to water pipes to melt snow (on a driveway), and after the last snowfall I’m seriously considering it. Does it make more sense to use electric or water in pipes? Doesn’t the water freeze? Is it drained into a holding tank?

A. I’ve wondered about this for years, ever since a performance hall did it back when I was in college. We left at the end of the performance to find the pavement fairly clean of snow in the middle of a snowstorm.

A friend told me they pay $150 for snow removal because they can’t shovel anymore. Add that up over 20 snowstorms and it starts to make sense to heat your driveway, but even with another 40 snowfalls, you still won’t break even. True, your property gains value to a buyer who envisions relaxing during a snowfall, but how many years will it be before you sell?

Electric cable mats or piping should be embedded in fresh concrete pavement, meaning you’ll need to remove and replace your existing driveway. Paver-stone driveways can also be used, but because water seeps into the joints, it can be problematic with trapped water. The piping systems use an antifreeze glycol system, so freezing isn’t a problem. The plumbing pipe system must have a separate heating unit, natural gas fed, which makes it necessary to have adequate space for a wall-mounted tank-less gas unit near the driveway, sometimes in a garage or adjacent room. Electric systems connect into either a wall-mounted sub-panel or the main panel on its own circuit.

There are two system types for electric, including a mat you can lay out, which isn’t recommended, because you have to pick it up and move it around. Electric radiant heat systems are probably your better option for cost because they come partially assembled in mat form and install more quickly, don’t need as much equipment to operate, and since they run only when it’s snowing, they don’t rack up continuous bills. Couple that with the eventual connection directly to solar panels, and the system runs itself cheaper from the sun source energy. The plumbed system has to be circulated at intervals to keep it maintained.

I planned to have an electric car and electric driveway, both solar-powered, back in 1987, and I’m still waiting for the systems, which have been available since the mid-1970s, to finally be reasonable and improved enough to buy and install. The utilities, as an editorial in Transmission and Distribution magazine stated, are very concerned about battery storage becoming cheap enough for the average homeowner to finally produce and store their own power. While we’re only a few years away, having the wiring in place now is your best bet. Labor and material prices will increase as systems become more popular. Good luck!

© 2017 Monte Leeper. Readers are encouraged to send questions to yourhousedr@aol.com, with “Herald question” in the subject line, or to Herald Homes, 2 Endo Blvd., Garden City, NY 11530, Attn: Monte Leeper, architect.