During the summer I had the shingle roof stripped and a metal standing seam roof put on. I have a very low pitch roof that holds onto the snow, and I was hoping the metal roof would allow the snow to slide off so I wouldn't have to roof rake as much. Add to the mix that my house also has a eave on all 4 sides, and roof raking becomes a nightmare for basically 130 feet. We had done the same thing at the Deering house (which had more of a pitch than my present house does, and a conventional roof with eaves on 2 sides), and it would shed snow fairly well once it started accumulating.
Well, I am happy to report that it has exceeded all expectations. The snow started sliding last night over the backside of the house.
This morning, one side was almost clear - the side that has both pellet stove exhaust pipes on it, plus the living room pellet stove makes that room very warm (of which I assume at least some of that warmth makes it to the attic). The front side still had lots of snow, even though I had to clean up some that it had dumped overnight.
When I got home about 3 this afternoon, the roof had cleared itself.
For those wondering, Some of the simplistic theory behind a metal roof shedding snow is that sunlight goes thru the snow and heats up the metal (the darker the color, the better the heating). Plus, any heat that escapes into the attic warms up the metal. In turn, the lower level of snow starts to melt, making the roof a water slide for the snow. This snow was very heavy, which means it probably slid faster than if it had been a light snow - that is my theory anyway, and we'll see how it holds up as the winter progresses.
I have the only completely clear roof in the neighborhood, and there are some houses with mighty steep roofs. Of course that meant I had to shovel the driveway and front steps again, but I don't have to worry about the snow load on the house at all!
Well done, getting the roofing replaced as you did. (I think that you implied that the orientation of the house, relative to the sun, may help determine the ordering of the clearing of the four "sides" to your roof. Sounds right!)
Posted by: Cop Car | November 28, 2014 at 09:05 AM
P.S. What was/is your power situation?
Posted by: Cop Car | November 28, 2014 at 09:46 AM
Awesome! Glad it worked!
Posted by: Ruth | November 28, 2014 at 10:07 AM
Power situation is good. Only had a couple of flickers on Thursday. Looking to get a UPS for the stoves - one will shut itself down gracefully when it detects that it is running on battery, then start itself back up when power is restored. The pretty one (upstairs) isn't so advanced so I really should get one that can last 8-12 hours. Did have a poser failure last Saturday for 15-20 minutes and got a few puffs of smoke out the door from the pretty one. The big one downstairs was already off for cleaning, so there wasn't any issue.
Posted by: bogie | November 30, 2014 at 07:47 AM