While heating the inside of your home is standard, many homeowners haven’t yet considered the idea of heating up the driveway. Although a warm driveway won’t keep you cozy at night, it has a variety of benefits, such as reducing hazards and eliminating the need to shovel snow.
Here are some of the benefits of a heated driveway system.
1. Save Effort and Expense
A heated driveway system allows you to avoid spending time to clear a path out of the driveway in the mornings. Sedalia, Colorado, gets approximately 77 inches of snow per year. Just imagine what you could do with that time each winter if you didn’t have to shovel all of those 77 inches of snow.
Or if you pay someone else to clear the driveway regularly, you could save money instead of time. Imagine what you could do with that cash if you weren’t shelling it out on a regular basis just to be able to leave your house.
2. Avoid Being Late to Work
If your area has an unseasonably heavy snowfall and you don’t have a heated driveway, you’re in trouble. You could end up late to work because you have to dig your car out of the driveway. In addition, you could end up worn out from all that digging before you even get to work.
With a heated driveway system, you can avoid this issue by ensuring the snow never has a chance to stick. And you can install your system with a programmable thermostat so that you never forget to turn the system on.
3. Avoid Re-Freezing to Reduce Driving Hazards
If you shovel snow off the driveway and then salt it to thaw the remnants, these remnants could create a dangerous slipping hazard when nighttime temperatures get cold enough to re-freeze them. This slippery situation doesn’t just mean you could trip and fall. Your car could also slide on the ice, which can be especially hazardous if your driveway is steep or curved.
However, with a driveway warm enough that snow won’t freeze on it, you can avoid any icy patches on it. You won’t have to worry about slipping or about your car sliding out of control before you even leave the driveway.
4. Improve Curb Appeal and Home Value
A partially cleared driveway can look patchy, and while a totally snowed-under driveway may look clean and pristine, it’s not very functional. With a heated driveway system, you can keep your driveway neatly cleared of snow, giving it a well-kept look that could increase curb appeal.
In addition, a heated driveway is such an asset in a cold Colorado winter that installing one may increase your home’s value.
5. Avoid De-Icing Chemicals
If you don’t have a heated driveway, you may resort to de-icing products such as salt. However, avoiding these types of products is ideal for three main reasons:
- These products can often be hazardous for you, your pets, and your landscape.
- De-icers can damage both metal (like your car) and concrete, stone, or asphalt (like your driveway).
- These products can run off into surface water and harm wildlife and the ecosystem.
While a heated driveway does expend energy (meaning it’s not totally carbon-neutral), it can still benefit the environment by helping you avoid de-icing chemicals such as road salts.
As you can see, a heated driveway system can be quite a boon for any homeowner who lives in an area with cold and snowy winters, such as Colorado. For more information about the heated driveway systems we offer, get in touch with Steele Bros Heating, Inc., today.
