SnowWatt

Snow zone — MA-east · RI · CT · ME-coastal · NH-coastal

Heated driveways and snow-melting mats in the Coastal New England (eastern MA, RI, CT, coastal ME/NH)

Snowfall normals, electricity rates and melt-capability figures for the Coastal New England (eastern MA, RI, CT, coastal ME/NH), computed from NOAA and EIA data.

This page is data only — the written analysis has not been through editorial review yet, so it is marked noindex until it has.

Climate normals

Annual snowfall
43.8 in
Snow days ≥ 1 in
10.9
Season length
26 wk
Electricity
30.08¢

43.8 in a year at Boston, MA — NOAA GHCN-Daily, 1991-2020 normals. Electricity: Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for MA, RI, CT, ME.

Will a mat keep up here?

Melt capability against this zone's snowfall

Melt gauge — HeatTrak HR20-60 in Coastal New England (eastern MA, RI, CT, coastal ME/NH)

  1. ≥ 0.1 in22.4 d/yr3 min
  2. ≥ 1 in10.9 d/yr30 min
  3. ≥ 3 in4.7 d/yr1.5 h
  4. ≥ 5 in2.7 d/yr2.5 h
  5. ≥ 10 in0.5 d/yr5.0 h
Design day
5 in
Clears in
2.5 h
Running per year
22 h
Melt rate (claimed)
2 in/hr
Marginal

A 5 in day clears in 2.5 h, but normal snowfall means about 22 h of running a year.

  • The melt rate is the manufacturer's claim, not a measurement. SnowWatt has not operated this product. Every portable mat on the market quotes the same 2 in/hr, which makes it a marketing constant rather than a differentiator.
  • Clear time assumes continuous running on a mat that starts clear. It is the time to melt that much accumulation, not a storm-duration model, and it does not account for drifting, refreeze, or snow arriving while the mat works.
  • The design day is a 30-year normal, not a forecast. 43.8 in a year at Boston, MA (NOAA GHCN-Daily, 1991-2020), the largest daily threshold crossed at least once a year. Your worst day will be worse.

What it costs to run

Running cost — Coastal New England (eastern MA, RI, CT, coastal ME/NH)

Power draw
300 VA
Per design-day storm
$0.23
Per normal season
$1.98
Electricity
30.08¢
  • HeatTrak does not publish a wattage for this product. The figure above is SnowWatt's own arithmetic — 120 V × 2.5 A — and it is apparent power in VA, not a measured wattage. HeatTrak states no tolerance on this figure, which is not the same as a tolerance of zero — treat the cost below as an order of magnitude, not a quote. Treat it as an upper bound on real power, and see the methodology page for why we will not print it as watts.
  • Hours come from the melt gauge above: 2.5 h to clear the design-day accumulation, and about 22 h a year to keep pace with normal snowfall. Both assume continuous running and no idling, standby or preheat — so the season figure is a floor, not a forecast.
  • Electricity at 30.08¢/kWh (USD). Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for MA, RI, CT, ME.

The same figures for an embedded system, which publishes a real wattage and so can be costed exactly:

Running cost — Coastal New England (eastern MA, RI, CT, coastal ME/NH)

Power draw
1500 W
Per design-day storm
—
Per normal season
—
Electricity
30.08¢
  • Power draw is the manufacturer's published rating of 1500 W.
  • Electricity at 30.08¢/kWh (USD). Unweighted mean of the January 2026 EIA residential price for MA, RI, CT, ME.

Sources

Most expensive electricity on the site (Massachusetts 31.16 cents in January 2026). Heavy wet nor easter snow at high density is the defining local condition and is exactly the variable this schema cannot yet source.

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