I’m surprised no one’s mentioned napalm yet. Just make a bit of it and spread it around thin. If its on top of the ice and you spread it thin enough it shouldn’t damage your driveway too badly.
The Tarpolin idea has merit, you can buy kerosene powered heaters to heat the air, and get it to a fairly high temperature contained inside a tarp. Keep this running for about an hour and there will be no water left inside the tarp. Move the tarp and the blowers, and clear another section. Open a flap in one end though, you dont want to set the tarp on fire from the inside.
Eat a bunch of beans, aim, light a match
Here’s what you need for your driveway…
Yeah, baby…a jet engine mounted on a railway car.
There’s a rail yard about a mile away from our house, and we can hear the jet engine going for a good portion of the night after a snowfall as they try to dry out the switches…
The only problem with trying to burn all that snow is, what do you do with the ashes?
CO2? Ozone hole? You are mixing environmental issues here.
I don’t think regular napalm works in low temperatures but armies that operated in colder climates have probarbly made their own napalm. I know the Norwegian army made napalm for use in cold weather based on whale-oil.
Anthracite! Good to see you! 
Where you been?
Re the OP-- I recall people putting electrical heating elements under sidewalks & driveways. Flick a switch, & cure the problem in 20 minutes? How’s that?
Make sure you only eat 239 beans. One more would make it too-farty.
[true story from real life]
My sister in law’s sister lives in France, just outside Paris. A couple of years ago they had a heavy snowfall. One of her neighbours, who had just recently moved out into the countryside from town, decided to clear the snow on his driveway away using hot water. It worked excellently. The only snag was that his house was on top of a small hill, so when the water froze his car did swiftly and silently slide down the hill and end up in some other neighbour’s garden. :smack:
[/true story from real life]
Don’t you Notherners see advertisements for different remedies for this problem? I mean with business minds constantly working on everyday problems, wouldn’t you think there would be companies installing special driveways, or offering special services and such? Seems like an easy problem to fix if you pay a little money in the offseason… as long as you have good drainage.
I think home-owners just use shovels and such things.
Calcium Carbide.
Back in college, I had a geology major roomate who used to go spelunking (cave exploring). He used a calcium carbide lamp, which exploited the fact that calcium carbide + water = acetylene. One time as a prank on a snowy Friday night, I dumped some calcium carbide in the snow and lit it. An unsuspecting drunk passing by kicked snow on the flames, making the flames even higher. Great geeky fun!
So get a great big 50 lb. bag, put some in the fertilizer spreader, and flick your bic when you’re done. Try not to immolate yourself or your property, ya hear? :eek: :eek: :eek:
I do know of an acquaintance in Pennsylvania who did install heater coils in his driveway (as it was being built)… the flip-a-switch, driveway heats up, problem solved variety mentioned above. (It was a custom home).
But I do wonder why that hasn’t caught on a little more – yes it is cost prohibitive, but one would think that some cheaper version would have been developed by now as standard equipment for new homes.
Get yerself one of these.
Melts 136 tons of snow per hour
Years ago I worked with a tiger torch to melt down amalgamated ice chips in an ice storage facility. This torch, run off a 30 pound propane tank threw a blue flame that was about 3inches in diameter and visible for a couple of feet and with considerable noise. You wouldn’t want to handle anything larger.
Still, if the chips were loose, the ice removal would have been quicker by hand shovel.
This probably wouldn’t work all that well, but it would scare the hell out of your neighbors. And they’d think twice about ever allowing Fido to poop on your lawn…
Are you thinking of radiant heat, Bosda ?
That’s one possibility.
this would be a great idea to get snow off your gutters, too.