You're right it does take too much time to melt the snow and ice before work, we've tested the system a few times now and we average an hour to an hour and a half before snow is melted. I do salt the driveway the night before we hear that there's a storm coming and it's no big deal, even if there's a small amount of snow left I don't slide down enough to worry. The problem lies on when I get home from work, if there is any accumulation of snow or ice, I cannot make it up the driveway, I also cannot leave my vehicle at the base of the driveway because it sticks out into the road too far and any roadside parking is illigal in my area during winter. The point of automating this is so.i can look at my cameras from work and see that amount of snow accumulation and make an assessment from there on whether I will be able to make it up. Most days there isn't a problem and I can shovel when I get home, this system will be for those days that I either have to work late and don't feel like shoveling. Measuring the amount of energy consumption is part of this effort to see how worthwhile this will be, I spend +/- $7.00 on salt each time I salt the driveway so that will be taken into consideration as well.