Well, it interests me enough to look. At one of the northern universities I recall them designing the steam tunnel piping to run under all the sidewalks and it worked out very efficiently. Since the steam was being piped to all campus buildings anyway, it made perfect sense to use some of that heat to melt snow.
FWIW, I really doubt if foam is necessary because heat rises and even heating the soil below will eventually cause the surface to become warmer.
talks about home-based systems.
Heated Driveway Costs Typically, the cost of a heated driveway system is between $12-$21 per square foot. Looking at our data, the average cost of a radiant heating system installation is $3,892, with a low of $1,300 and a high of $7,500 in that range. However, this price does not include the removal of the old driveway or the cost of the new one. Unfortunately, our data doesn't show the cost to remove the old driveway, but we do show the average asphalt paving cost ($4,457) and concrete driveway cost ($3,650). The range of asphalt driveway projects is much greater at $2,000-$25,000 than concrete at $650-$7,091.
says: Actual Experience Permalink Submitted by Frugal Rich Guy on Thu, 2013-04-18 08:46 I've had one for 20 years. It cost about $5k, because I needed to replace the driveway anyway. I still have to use the snowblower, because I still have to dig out the big pile at the end of the driveway thrown up by the plows. So I remove the bulk of the snow all over the driveway with the snowblower and then use the heat to melt what's left down to bare pavement. Pretty much how others use salt. Costs about $10 per storm.
says: Costs to Install and Operate Snow Melting Systems - The costs to operate snow melting systems vary widely depending on the size of the area being treated, local utility costs, the average total hours of snowfall, and how fast the system user wants to melt the snow. Obviously, the larger the area being heated and the more snow there is, the higher the operating cost. Also, a system used in a colder climate may require a higher wattage (for electric) or more Btu (for hydronic) than a similar system used in a warmer climate.
Watts Heatway, a supplier of hydronic systems, says annual operating costs range from 12 to 25 cents per square foot. So on average, it would cost $120 to $250 each winter to melt snow off a 1,000-square-foot driveway.
Depending on local utility rates, electric systems may cost even more to operate. EasyHeat, a supplier of electric mats for snow melting applications, says that the seasonal cost to heat a 1,000-square-foot slab at 50 kilowatts will run about $276 in areas of light snowfall (50 inches per year or less) and $692 in areas with average snowfall (50 to 100 inches). Those estimates are based on an average kilowatt cost per hour of
6.92?.Material and installation costs vary widely too. For Warm Floor Centers electric system, the materials alone run $4 to $6 per square foot, according to Blackburn. Lee Hydronics system runs about $5 to $10 per square foot installed. "The biggest variable is how far the embedded tubing is located from the power source," claims Bailey. The farther away the utilities are, the higher the installation and operating costs.