Roof Snow Melt Systems

[Jim]

I live @ 6500 ft in the Sierra's at Lake Tahoe and will be buying a new "factory built" home to replace my old 30 yr old double-wide. Maximum snow load I can find on a home I like is 80# with a 6/12 pitch. I plan to have metal corrugated roofing so snow will slide off easier but would like to know if anyone makes a snow-melt system for roofs besides the WWW type ice dam coils? Hot air ducting, radiant water tubing, electrical coils???? I am gone over winters and want the extra safety.

[Tom]

I have read report of mixed results from those systems. I would be very wary of leaving that type of device on in an unoccupied home. This is just my opinion, but if it were me, I would hire a real estate agent to monitor the home, and have them hire someone to come out periodically with a roof rake to clear the snow. I dont believe the heaters would have much effect on a roof with a couple of feet of snow anyway. Tom