Heating a Driveway in Ontario

I live near North / West Vancouver. many driveways are steep and long. some at higher elevations. I know of several heated driveways. I was told that they were all electric and must be put on at least 24 hours before snowfall. I have no idea of cost or how to. There is a supplier who makes long distance "heat trace". The dock i worked at had steel rails, about 600 both heated to keep troughs clear. Our club just paid $ 965 for 6 hours of bobcat plowing. not all the snow got cleared. Cold climate citizens would probably laugh at what we call snowy treacherous conditions.its not really snow, more like "white mud".

Pretzel,

Quite good summarisation of the problem.

When the heating needs to be on for to long time the cables are buried too deep and the power will be to low.

The power selection is also a tricky one: it all depends on the climatological situation once the snow has gone. You need to keep the heat in the driveway until all water has evaporated, when the power is to low this will take forever.

The same problem is occuring with roof heating: to be efficient the power needs to be sufficiently high. But as a roof wich has snow load issues is typical >1000m² the power needed goes up very quickly. The decision is then mostly negative.

But removing the snow by hand is also a problem: each winter people die or get seriously injured while getting the snow of their roof.