Does Alpha radiation isotope bonded glass exist? Aka passive heated glass?
I'm looking into building a solar heater for my garage and I'd like to place it on the roof, but I'm worried about snow covering it. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a glass which has an alpha radiation isotope in it that would heat the glass to lightly melt the snow as it comes down. I expect it's made somewhere, just not sure on cost effectiveness.
I understand that the isotope would halflife and degrade over time, but it'd work for several years with some isotopes.
Update:
What I'm looking for is passively heated glass that I can use to melt snow in winter off the top of a solar collector. If snow lands on it, the glass will be slightly heated and slowly melt the snow.
I thought that maybe laminating a dusting of the alpha isotope between two layers of glass would work, somewhat like how they pump argon gas between two layers for house glass panes.
Alpha isotope would be safer if my understanding is correct, which it possibly isn't.