Can snow melting be done?
Snow melting can be accomplished with GHPs; but, there are serious cost impacts on the residential side. Due to the nature of snow melting, a separate system must be installed to serve the load. This is due to its requirement for the circulation of an antifreeze fluid through the system, instead of the warm air supplied by water-to-air heat pumps. Beyond this, since the requirement for snow melting coincides with the need for space heating, additional ground loop must be installed to serve the snow melting system. Although GHPs produce heat less expensively than most other systems, because of the substantial quantities of heat required by snow melting systems, the annual cost remains high. The high energy cost is a result of the way snow melt systems are operated. Most systems are allowed to “idle” at a low heat output during the winter season. This allows the paved surface to quickly come up to temperature when snow fall occurs. The energy consumed by this idling operation, because of
