EFM520-heat Driveway?

I was always told that if you have to ask how much a snowmelt system costs to install or operate, you can't afford it.

I think having a coal boiler changes the operation cost part, but it would still increase your coal consumption quite a bit.

Im gonna go out on a limb and say a efm doesn't have enough btu out put to de ice a driveway a knee jerk reaction ,

There was a car wash application thread posted a few years ago but I don't recall reading what the BTU determination ended up at or what size boiler would meet demand. I remember it was bigger than a 520. That included hot water and building heat in addition to slab heating. It might be a place to start the homework for boiler size.

Cheaper to buy a good used 4X4 with a plow.

This snow system will work. You see them all the time in schools and government buildings. Common thread is that someone else is picking up the bill. I put one in my driveway 15 years ago. Bottom line is that it takes millions of BTUs. The main concept you need to understand is 'HEAT OF CRYSTALLIZATION OF WATER'. Then you can worry about the lesser factors like cost of antifreeze, piping, pumps, thousands square foot radiator out in the zero, heating up how ever many truck loads of concrete ect. I have found mine to be useful in getting packed ice and freezing rain off the driveway. My technique for ice removal is--
1. Pick a sunny day at least 30 degrees. (This thing will suck the heat right out of the house)
2. Start at 8 am.
3. Scrape off every pound of snow and ice you can.
4. Turn on pump, Axeman-Anderson 260 and propane boiler. (Combined power over 350,000 btu/hour)
5. Go out about 4 pm and push slush off driveway.
I'm not sorry I put this system in and I would probably have do it again. If you have a gas well on your property with unlimited free gas and somewhere to house a whole collection of gas boilers and the patience to plumb it all up then I would recommend it.

And there you have it, Folks!

coaledsweat wrote: ↑

Thu. Jan. 11, 2018 7:37 pm

https://www.warmzone.com/?utm_source=google&utm_m ... paign=nett

37w per square foot of driveway. Does not sound like a lot until you start multiplying by 1000.... Lol. That's about 125btu/hr per sqft if my fuzzy math is right

If that’s right, I’d be looking at 120 pounds an hour, I would need 9 more eshland 260’s? Lol that’s amazing!

Given 37 watts per sq ft that equals 126 BTUs. For an example, a driveway 50 feet x 12 ft wide = 600 sq ft.
600 × 126 = about 75000 BTUs

Seems doable to me.
Unless I did something wrong there lol

Lightning wrote: ↑

Fri. Jan. 12, 2018 2:35 pm

Given 37 watts per sq ft that equals 126 BTUs. For an example we have a driveway 50 feet x 12 ft wide = 600 sq ft.
600 × 126 = about 75000 BTUs

Seems doable to me.
Unless I did something wrong there lol

That's what I thought. I guess the bigger issue is earmarking 75kbtu + your standard heat load for the house and DHW. The return Delta is probably massive as well. Not sure how 30*F return water works heading back to the boiler? I'm assuming it would tempered, but even still the recovery would be brutal to bring the driveway up to temp.

That is but one reason university steam plants and some cities use low pressure steam or the hot water condensate byproduct coming from their heating plants to heat sidewalks and asphalt walking paths as they have the horsepower to do it effectively with cooler condensate.

Lightning wrote: ↑

Fri. Jan. 12, 2018 2:35 pm

Given 37 watts per sq ft that equals 126 BTUs. For an example, a driveway 50 feet x 12 ft wide = 600 sq ft.
600 × 126 = about 75000 BTUs

Seems doable to me.
Unless I did something wrong there lol

Lol I’m sitting on 600 feet x 12 ft..

Lightning wrote: ↑

Fri. Jan. 12, 2018 2:35 pm

Given 37 watts per sq ft that equals 126 BTUs. For an example, a driveway 50 feet x 12 ft wide = 600 sq ft.
600 × 126 = about 75000 BTUs

Seems doable to me.
Unless I did something wrong there lol

The OP said 30x68, which is 2,040 sf. If the 126 btu/sf figure is right, that gets you to 257k bu/hr, which is beyond the output capability of the OP's 520, even if it had no other load. Brody: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

Mike