Preparing for Winter in Northern Illinois
November 30, 2021
Photographer: Dale Hugo
Summary Authors: Dale Hugo; Jim Foster
How bad are the winters in northern Illinois? Well, if you have a long driveway, and deep pockets, the above shows a way to eliminate shoveling snow. It’s a hot water system that will hide under the newly poured concrete. A pump circulates hot water with antifreeze through the tubing beneath the cured concrete. I knew such things existed but had never seen the hidden plumbing. Snow is melted at a rate of about an inch an hour (2.5 cm/hr). The idea with systems such as this is to maintain a surface temperature of approximately 37 degrees F (3 C). Anyway, since this isn’t my house, I’ll continue to remove the snow that piles up on my driveway the old-fashioned way --- shoveling and snow blowing. Photo taken in July 2021.