Hello:
I am new to the heated driveway concept.. Just wondering how efficient they are!  I have a long steep and curvey driveway!! Are electrical the way to go? 

Would appreciate if someone can point me to a list of good installers in the Boston area.


Thanks

Heated driveway, EFFICIENT!?!! Compared to what?

It's an expensive up-front proposition for dealing with an intermittent & temporary problem. Compared to hiring a service to deal with it for several hundred/year, it's a lot. Depending on the distance, even buying a tiny John Deere or Kubota with a plow could be less money, more useful, and burn less fuel energy overall. It's hard to make an argument that snowmelting systems for driveways is somehow greener or more efficient than the alternatives. Maybe you could recycle- embed spent fuel rods from the reactor for a snowmelting & disposal solution and get some LEEDS points out of it, eh? :-)

Electrical will be far more expensive to operate than gas-fired hydronic with most eastern MA utilities, but the up-front installation of electrical may be somewhat lower.

I have one. Very cost effective the way I use it - compare a $25 commercial plowing service to $5 of nat gas - or to a $1000 car repair because it slid down the driveway.  But:

1) I have a rough paver driveway where it is hard to get the last bit of snow/ice any other way
2) commercial services would destroy the paver driveway
3) I use the snowblower for any significant snow (ie, mostly used for ice)
4) I will not use salt (if it even works, it is bad for the car and for the pavers)
5) only runs when I need it - no idle
6) it only heats the tracks where the tires go
7) uses natural gas

And the upfront installed cost was $/foot of driveway length was...?

I think I'd rather have the Kubota & plow if I had any driveway length to clear. (Works great for a buddy of mine with 1000' of driveway with 2 turns & 100' of vertical in somewhat cooler snowier Boylston MA. It was useful for log-skidding out the ice storm damage last December too.) YMMD

Studded tires are legal in Boston from half-past November to half-past March...  It would take a lot of driving on that driveway for it to sustain stud damage.

For me, it was just PEX and pump - I had the other parts. A plow wouldn't work for me, studs might (but aren't legal here).

There are no installers in the Boston area as yet, but we're working on it. Maybe next year. What type of medium do you wish to install it in? (asphalt, concrete, pavers, etc..) If you go electric, use low voltage. Not just for the 25 year element warranty, but if it's damaged, it's easy to trace and repair. No glycol, no maintenance and you will know how much it will cost, per running hour, upfront. Good luck in your search....if you do find someone who can install it, come back and let us know. We can give them lots of work!

Thanks warmsmeallup!! My driveway is about ~4200sqft (2300 driveway + 1900 area around the garage) of asphalt!! Thinking of tire tracks for the 8ft wide driveway. Not sure if I should do the entire driveway vs tracks..Is low voltage the way to go instead of line voltage? Is there a specific cable that is better than the other - (dan foss Vs. nexans).

Thanks in advance

I would concentrate the elements in the "tire tracks" or at least you make sure you have them running up and down in those spots. I did ours with easyheat cables since it was cheap and I could do it myself. I wish now I had put pex in, but the cables work fine, I have only used them 4 times in the two winters so far in icing conditions. Our cables are on 12 inch on center, which works for icing conditions but not close enough for true snow melting (which would cost too much anyway).

I do think heating driveways have their place, our last home had them in the tire tracks of the driveway, which was about 150 feet long and went up about 40 feet over that distance, there is no way I could keep that driveway clean and even with a dusting of snow a car without snows could not get up the driveway.

There is a big difference in the design of the element when comparing line voltage to low voltage. Danfoss and Nexans are line voltage systems.

Heatizon is a low voltage element. Both electric systems function the same way in that they use electricity to heat however they accomplish in different ways.

Also, line voltage being what it is, has stricter reg's when it comes to placement in the ground. (Check your local reg's for just how deep they can be placed) Since it uses 240v in the element it must be deeper in the ground for safety's sake. Therefore it must, by design, create more heat to do the same job as low voltage which can be 1" from the surface.

How much square footage you cover will depend on your budget. Tracks are good until you are faced with about 5" or more snow. Then they tend to either collapse in on themselves or your vehicle will 'plow' the center uncleared path in on the tracks as you drive in. So, for light snow falls or keeping the path clear after the plow leaves it's 1/4" of ice behind, they will work fine. But remember, if we get a nor-easter, they'll be uselss until the plow leaves...each time!

An 8' wide path will remain clear and allow you in an out without a problem 80% of the time. The nor-easter will require pre-activation to get the driveway 'warmed up'. Though they are still tough to keep up with.

Remember also that snow melting systems are not designed to melt through snow, they are designed to prevent it from building. So, if you don't use an automatic sensor to activate it and you forget to activate it in time, you will have a nice igloo developed on your driveway that will take the sun and a lot of electricity to melt through.