Private Driveway Snow-melting, Rye, NH

AWE engineered the geothermal snow-melting system for a 7,500 sq-ft existing private driveway. Project was completed in 2010. A vertical borehole close-loop ground source heat pump system was designed to retrofit the existing propane-fired hot water snow-melting system. The geothermal heating system successfully passed the test of the unusually big and frequent snow storms in the winter of 2010 – 2011. Significant energy cost savings were achieved by the geothermal system based on metered data and previous utility bills: 66% savings compared with 2009, 88% savings compared with 2008.

A ground loop system that consists of 62 vertical boreholes was built. Water-to-water ground source heat pumps were installed, with a total heating capacity of over 140 tons.