Paramus home harnesses sun, earth to melt snow off driveway

The Parikh house uses solar and geothermal energy to clear its own driveway. Watch video

PARAMUS -- For many people, at least those without snow blowers, this past weekend's blizzard was a test of strength.

For the Parikh family, it was a test of their radically redesigned house, which has no furnace, no air conditioner and no hot water heater but has the ability to melt the snow right off the driveway.

The house passed the test. Raj Parikh, who has lived at the house since 1980, had hardly any shoveling to do.

Heated driveways are widely available, but they usually burn gas or oil, Raj's son Asit said.

"They're burning fuel," he said. "There's no combustion in this system. It's just the earth and the sun."

Raj, an engineer who is CEO and chairman of the Metroplitan Building and Consulting Group of New York, and Asit, a New York City real estate broker, undertook took a massive redesign of their Henry Street home starting in 2011. Their aim was to create the greenest house in town, heated and cooled entirely by the sun and the earth.

The house is nearly complete, and the systems used to warm the driveway and walkways are clearly up and running. The Parikhs have designed a system that warms water to about 100 degrees using solar collectors and geothermal pumps. That water is piped underneath the driveway and walkways.

The Parikhs use the sun and the ground to heat and cool the house as well. During the winter, the house intakes air warmed by the sun and carries it 12 feet underground to be heated by the ground before piping it inside. The incoming air is also heated by exhaust air coming from the kitchen and bathroom. To cool the house, the air takes the same route, only it skips the solar collectors.

The house also has systems to collect rainwater and the very snow it melts during winter storms.

Asit said he's often asked if the various systems in the house are expensive. On the contrary, he said, they save money.

"I don't know if you've met my folks but they don't waste money," he said. "We're sitting on the same couches and dining table we had 20 years ago."

The Parikhs hope to finish construction on the house by Earth Day and plan to invite students to tour the house as an example of green building.