Ferrari Mailing List: [NFC] I buried it!

[Martin Stark (MStark]

1300' of 16 awg UF solid, single conductor cable.  There's a patch of 
driveway behind my garage that gets little or no sun in the winter and 
turns into the skating rink from hell. It was time to repave the entire 
driveay so the window of opportunity was open. 

The cable was sandwiched between the 2.5" blacktop base layer that was 
applied the previous week and the freshly laid 1.5" top coat.  My son 
and I spent about 6 hours nailing the cable down in 2" apart strips 
using coax cable clips.  We used about 900 clips, junking about a third 
of the total by running into stones.

The cable's "cold" resistance is about 5.5 ohms.  I tested it today 
connected directly to 240 VAC (nominal) and it draws about 40 Amps.  It 
should supply approx 45 watts/sq ft of driveway area.  Total cost of the 
cable and clips was less than 10% the price of melting mats.  I made up 
for the cost savings by lining the entire driveway area with 525 jumbo 
granite cobbles (370 linear feet) laid in mortar, 7" end facing the 
blacktop.  If the diy melter works next winter I'll install a timer and 
dfi breaker. 

~Marty