I have an idea I'd like to try out. I current have large piles of snow in front of my house from the recent winter unpleasantness. Because of the surface area to mass ratio, these six foot tall piles are going to take forever to melt. I'd like to speed that up using smarts.
My first thought was to sprinkle them liberally with rock salt. The problem is they're big enough that putting enough salt in place might be troublesome. My second thought is that the biggest piles are on my lawn and any salt will end up on or under my yard. I'd rather not salt my own fields as Rome did to Carthage.
My second thought is to stab some aluminum strips into the heart of the larger piles. Aluminum is an excellent heat conductor and is available in a number of forms at the local hardware store. If I can find some cheap strips (preferably black), I can essentially conduct heat into the heart of the pile. I could put them in in the morning and then pull them when I got home so they wouldn't cool the piles during the night. Not sure if they'd work, but it might be neat to try.
Thoughts from my fellow nerds?
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Personally I just kick a little off each time I walk by.
Interesting idea. Do you have two piles for a control?
Well I do have multiple piles but they would need to be the same size, etc. I'm thinking that the benefit of tract housing with near identical landscaping is that I could use my neighbors as a control.
Maybe putting clear plastic sheets over them, making a sort of greenhouse?
Up here in the North we just wait for the sun to do the job, which it eventually does each Spring.
Two suggestions:
1 - Instead of driving aluminum strips or poles into the snow, drive some corrugated steel or aluminum, or even plain flat sheet aluminum down into the snow. Much better sunlight gathering surface area, and much more conductive area in the snow.
2 - What happens if you put a black tarp over the snow?
you could tell the local kids there is candy buried under there. or throw pennies on the piles, wait until they heat up and sink into the piles, and then tell the kids about your "problem" and tell them they could keep any money they find. give them shovels and tell them that there is no money in the lawn next door, and that is where they should put the already searched thru snow.
truely though, you need to think of what is going to happen to all that melted snow if you try the aluminum trick. you will probably kill some of your yard due to the water freezing on the grass. the snow is a good insulator, and keeps the grass from totally dying in the winter. mechanical removal would prevent that. also, keeping a bit over the grass or around plants is advisable if it is below freezing temperatures.
Sand.
Sprinkle it liberally over the top of the snow. The darker the sand the better. As the sand absorbs the solar heat, it will cause the snow to melt. If you spread it evenly, the snow will melt off pretty evenly.
I have lived in some pretty snowy areas most of my life and I have not used rock salt in 20 years. The best snow removers I have found are are sand and granular lawn fertilizer. Basic Nitrogen Potassium Phosphorous 12-6-8 works great. My local home and garden shops stock up on it for snow melt every winter.
Instead of driving aluminum strips or poles into the snow, drive some corrugated steel or aluminum, or even plain flat sheet aluminum down into the snow.
In terms of heat transfer aluminum has it all over steel. Finding sheet aluminum for a reasonable price would be troublesome. Strips or poles are also easy to hammer in.
What happens if you put a black tarp over the snow?
I'm mostly concerned that anything I cover the snow with will act as an insulator. I think the answer is maintaining convective heating off the snowpack as much as possible while improving radiative heat transfer and thermal conduction within the pack.
Sand. Sprinkle it liberally over the top of the snow. The darker the sand the better. As the sand absorbs the solar heat, it will cause the snow to melt. If you spread it evenly, the snow will melt off pretty evenly.
Oh I think I have a winner. Silicates should work wonders in this application. May have to try the fertilizer option as well.
I also tried the rock salt option over the weekend. It is ineffective on any significant volume of snow. The snow melts, the salt dissolves, and the pile of snow only shrinks a very small amount.
when i need to remove a snow bank i wait until the temperature is above freezing and the set my lawn sprinkler in the middle of it and leave it be.
this has the advantage over other methods as it washes away the insulating layer of dirt that gets plowed up with the snow
You could have hot raging sex for a really long time out in the snow with a smokin' hot chick and your combined body heat should melt the snow.
Or do the same thing but with an orgy of people covered in sand to retaind the heat even better
Both methods work. Been using them for years. Added benefit: sand just ends up on the grass. If it lands on the pavement, a couple of minutes with a broom or garden hose takes care of it.
The only problem with fertilizer? Your lawn will be greener and grow better where you used it. Then you'll have to do the rest of the lawn.
Your lawn will be greener and grow better where you used it.
Not a problem. I live in an interior townhouse unit. I have a 4x20 foot park strip on the front of the house which is completely covered in snow. The whole reason I'm thinking about all this is that I'm completely out of places to put the snow.
Host a Winter Olympics. The weather would surely change to a warm up really quick!
The Yellow Snow Solution
Step One: Buy beer. Lotsa beer.
Step Two: Invite friends over to drink beer.
Step Three: Lock bathroom door.
How about a huge mirror (glass, polished bronze shield...) focused at the pile of snow?
just be careful not to light the grass on fire once it's melted.
There must be a quicker, geeker way...
how about inviting your local politicians to warm the air around the house. Then use mirrors to reflect light at darkend pieces of aluminum siding.
THe politicians will warm the air temp up so that the suns heat can be concentrated on the aluminum.
How about stabbing the bottom of the pile with black PVC pipe with holes drilled in it? If you run hot air through the pipes and leave them at an angle with an open end in the street as an outlet, the snow should melt, drip into the pipes, and run off.
Toss clumps of snow into the toilet and flush it down. Or let it melt in the bowl. Alternatively, pay neighborhood kids to take small loads of snow into their houses to toss into their toilets. Or shovel it into the bed of some unsuspecting driver's pick-up truck. Ta-Da!
Just remember that any solution might be covered up again the next time it snows.
So how has the progress gone on the melting of the pile of snow? We are running a contest at work to see who comes the closest to when the big pile of snow in the parking lot melts, just curious on how much melts each day.
What I have been doing for the past 20 years was to use a corrugated pipes connected to my automobile exhaust tail pipes. The hot gases from the car exhaust system is channeled into the heart of the snow pile and the snow melts. If the car is stuck in the ice, the hot gases can be channeled to each tire and the ice will melt there also.. Also if ice is on the windows or windshields , the "Exhaust-A-Frost"(TM) will melt the ice. If you would like to purchase an "Exhaust-A-Frost", Please send $39.95 Plus $5.00 shipping to MYP1985@aol.com. while the supply lasts.
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