SnowWatt

Snow zone — ON-south · QC-south

Heated driveways and snow-melting mats in the Ontario-Quebec Corridor (Windsor-Quebec City, incl. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal)

Snowfall normals, electricity rates and melt-capability figures for the Ontario-Quebec Corridor (Windsor-Quebec City, incl. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal), 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
42.7 in
Snow days ≥ 1 in
—
Season length
—
Electricity
12¢

42.7 in a year at Toronto Lester B. Pearson Int'l A, ON — ECCC Canadian Climate Normals, 1981-2010 normals. NOT COMPARABLE TO THE US ZONES — see canadian-prairies. Electricity: Ontario Energy Board Regulated Price Plan, Tiered Tier 1 residential price. Ontario time-of-use prices over the same period run 9.8 (off-peak) to 20.3 (on-peak), and Ultra-Low Overnight runs 3.9 to 39.1 — a snow-melt load can therefore cost 4x more or 3x less than this single figure depending on when the storm lands. Do not present the Tier 1 number as "the Ontario rate" without that range.

Will a mat keep up here?

Melt capability against this zone's snowfall

Melt gauge — HeatTrak HR20-60 in Ontario-Quebec Corridor (Windsor-Quebec City, incl. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal)

  1. ≥ 0.2 cm44.4 d/yr2 min
  2. ≥ 5 cm6.6 d/yr59 min
  3. ≥ 10 cm1.8 d/yr2.0 h
  4. ≥ 25 cm0.1 d/yr4.9 h
Design day
3.9 in
Clears in
2.0 h
Running per year
21 h
Melt rate (claimed)
2 in/hr
Keeps up

A 3.9 in day clears in 2.0 h, on about 21 h of running a year.

Canadian day-counts are published at centimetre thresholds (0.2 / 5 / 10 / 25 cm), so the deepest one that happens even once a year is 10 cm — 3.9 in. A Canadian zone therefore cannot produce the 5 in design day a US zone can, however much it snows. Compare this verdict with other Canadian zones, not with US ones.

  • 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. 42.7 in a year at Toronto Lester B. Pearson Int'l A, ON (ECCC Canadian Climate Normals, 1981-2010), the largest daily threshold crossed at least once a year. Your worst day will be worse.

What it costs to run

Running cost — Ontario-Quebec Corridor (Windsor-Quebec City, incl. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal)

Power draw
300 VA
Per design-day storm
CA$0.07
Per normal season
CA$0.77
Electricity
12¢
  • 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: 2.0 h to clear the design-day accumulation, and about 21 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 12¢/kWh (CAD). Ontario Energy Board Regulated Price Plan, Tiered Tier 1 residential price. Ontario time-of-use prices over the same period run 9.8 (off-peak) to 20.3 (on-peak), and Ultra-Low Overnight runs 3.9 to 39.1 — a snow-melt load can therefore cost 4x more or 3x less than this single figure depending on when the storm lands. Do not present the Tier 1 number as "the Ontario rate" without that range.

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

Running cost — Ontario-Quebec Corridor (Windsor-Quebec City, incl. Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal)

Power draw
1500 W
Per design-day storm
—
Per normal season
—
Electricity
12¢
  • Power draw is the manufacturer's published rating of 1500 W.
  • Electricity at 12¢/kWh (CAD). Ontario Energy Board Regulated Price Plan, Tiered Tier 1 residential price. Ontario time-of-use prices over the same period run 9.8 (off-peak) to 20.3 (on-peak), and Ultra-Low Overnight runs 3.9 to 39.1 — a snow-melt load can therefore cost 4x more or 3x less than this single figure depending on when the storm lands. Do not present the Tier 1 number as "the Ontario rate" without that range.

Sources

THIS ZONE PROBABLY NEEDS SPLITTING. Toronto (42.7 in) and Montreal (82.5 in) differ by nearly 2x in snowfall, and Quebec residential power is roughly 40% cheaper than Ontario, so both of the two variables that drive every number on this site diverge inside one zone. Logged in VERIFY-TODO. Quebec rate is unfilled — the Hydro-Quebec rate page did not resolve on 2026-07-25.

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