I decided to heat my driveway with an electric snow melting system last year from Warmzone and am having terrific results with it so far this winter! As a contractor I am thinking about adding this to my quiver of services I offer. I was impressed with how easy it was to install and now how EFFECTIVE this system performs! Just got my first electric bill and have determined that it cost me about $15/per storm. Question: What is your experience with Electric and/or Hydronic snow melting systems?

how large of an area are you melting, and what physical media (asphalt, concrete, etc)?

I usually tell my clients $50 for fossil fuel/hydronic melting on a "regular" driveway/walkway per storm as a ballpark. I typically discourage it because of cost upfront and general energy usage.

The portion of driveway I used electric radiant heat (Danfoss GX cable from Warmzone) is 900 square feet of concrete (new pour). I believe the watts per square foot was 37. So the math supports the operational costs I have noticed on my electric bill which is the following: 900 (sq/ft) x 37 (watts/sq. ft) = 33,300 watts / 1000 (to get the kilowatt) = 33.3 kilowatts/per operational hour x .08 (my areas kilowatt rate charge) =$2.66 per operational hour x 5 hours of operation = $13.32 (cost per storm).

I am thrilled with my systems effectiveness to melt snow/ice and how it turns itself on and off by way of an automated sensor from ASE that detects precipitation and temperature. When the perfect storm hits (cold temps & precip) then my driveway kicks on and when the storm passes (no more precip or rise in temp) the system will stay on another 2 hours and then shut down completely.

Hope your electric system lasts. I have seen alot of cable systems break down after 5 or so years. Maybe the components are better now