To get to my apartment, I have to climb up an outside, metal staircase. Winter Is Coming. I’d like to find a proactive way to keep snow and/or ice off of it so I don’t have to do the shovel-a-step, walk-down-a-step, shovel-a-step dance all winter. Is there some sort of heating device that can be mechanically attached to the underside of each step, and the landing at the top, to melt the snow before it accumulates? If so, what would such a device be called (so I could ask for one at Lowe’s)?
I was thinking maybe a patio heater, but the danger is that the snow just remelts and ices over your stairs and the danger of the damp to the electrics in it. Apparently there are hydronic systems, including ones that turn on and off automatically. Looks a bit pricy though, the cost/benefit probably falls squarely in the shovel category.
ETA: Further Googling reveals that this is possibly the ideal device!
They make electric heating wires for preventing ice dams on roofs. That should be pretty much what you’re looking for. I’m not sure it will work as well in your situation, since the underside is exposed to the air, rather than backed up by the relatively warm roof.
ETA: Search for Roof heater at the Lowes website
Take a long strip of fabric the width of the stairs and a quarter length longer than the stairs. Lay it on the stairs the night before, and the next morning just lift the edge at the top of the stairs and shake off the snow as you descend. Recover the stairs before you leave, and you’re all set.
Wouldn’t be hard at all to circulate warm water under the steps.
Plastic tubing and some fiberglass insulation under each step- you could seriously duct tape it in place.
Then a hook up to water that’s kept somewhat above freezing, and a little recirculating pump, and you’re set.
If they don’t already sell that, somebody should.
I really like this idea! :eek: Seems almost too simple to work. But I can’t see why it wouldn’t.
A thin long carpet piece will work, too.
Would it work for more than an inch or two of powder? I would worry that an ice storm would cause the whole damn thing to freeze solid. A thin fabric would probably soak through and freeze to the steps in this circumstance; a thick piece of carpet would probably become sodden and too heavy to lift. For that matter, a sufficiently dense and deep snowfall could make the carpet too heavy to lift.
With the carpet, you are lifting the top edge, tossing the snow down and/or off to the side. It is easy enough to work your way down the stairs.
it would be hard keeping all the snow and fabric in front of you as you walk down the stairs; it’s heavy and bulky.
lay fabric on the stairs. at the top corners attach ropes which go down to the bottom of the stairs.
get to the ground level by using your fire escape ladder out a window or ride a plastic sled down the snowy stairs. at the bottom of the stairs then pull on the ropes to bring the snow and fabric towards you.
Melting snow takes a lot of energy. For the money you’d spend in energy, you could offer the landlord to pay to frame out the stairway and make it a covered one with heavy plastic sides that you can remove out of season.
They aren’t cheap, but google up “Snow Melting Pads”.
I don’t actually use them for snow/ice, but I do use them in the winter time to keep my well pumps, outdoor piping, and boat / jet ski motors from freezing.
There is heating tape made to wrap around pipes that are exposed to freezing. I remember it is used with mobile home (“trailer”) connections, where the pipe comes from the ground to the bottom of the home.
Note: if you use any heat-generating scheme, see if treating one step will also protect the one above (heat rises, and if the stuff emits heat continuously, it might warm more than just the step it’s on.
Go with the roof heating cable, it’s intended to be outdoors and melt snow. They sell it at Amazon, lots of different lengths and the price looks pretty good. Just zig zag it along the underside of the stairs (I’m not sure what kind of options you have to attach it, maybe coated wire or a zip tie) and plug it in when the snow starts.
The snow melting wires for a roof are going to be your best bet, as others have said, it’s what they’re designed to do. You can probably hold them in place with zip times of pieces of wire twisted around them. Keep in mind, all this snow is going to fall straight down and form back into ice, so if it’s going to land on a public sidewalk, someone else’s stairs or some other walkway, this might end up being more work then it’s worth.
That’s what I’d think, though maybe keeping it warm helps to keep snow from accumulating.
My guess is a couple of strategically mounted fans might be as effective but less energy-intensive. I’m not sure whether I’m kidding here …
“Keeping it warm to prevent snow from accumulating” is the same as “using heat to melt snow as soon as it lands”. Also, metal has a very good thermal conductivity, so you can’t just heat the steps - you end up having to heat the entire structure. And an exposed metal staircase has a LOT of surface area in contact with cold air.
If the staircase has 3 inches of snow on it, I’ll bet turning on the heater wire will melt it off fairly quickly. The cold treads and snow will absorb the heat long before the energy is going to start traveling up the railings and throughout the rest of the structure. Snow is a good insulator.
3 inches of snow would be equivalent to about 1/3 inch of water. If the staircase has a total area of 30 square feet, that’s about 24 liters of frozen water. It takes about 8 MJ of energy to melt all that snow. If you have heaters that add up to 1400 watt (about the maximum you can safely draw from a regular outlet), it would take about 1.6 hours to melt all that snow - assuming all the energy went into melting the snow, and none of it is lost to the air.
But metal isn’t. And a metal staircase is usually all-metal construction, with the stair steps welded or riveted to support columns, railings, etc. All this makes an excellent setup for air-cooling of the entire structure.
I suppose you could lay down an insulating plate (e.g. wood) on each step and put a heater on top of that. But even in the best-case scenario (above) we’re still talking about a fair amount of energy.
buy a sturdy pair of crampons