How Many BTU's Do I Need For Snow Melt?

Important Factors

In order to determine how many BTU's you require for your snow melting system, you really need to consider only a few major items. This considerations will take into account how crucial it is to have no snow and ice. It will also take into account the cost factor of designing your system.

Snow-Free Area Ratio - What is the acceptable amount of accumulation on your heating surface? Some critical locations cannot have any, such as hospital emergency areas. Others are less crucial like residential patios. The less acceptable for accumulation of course means more energy requirements.
What is your location (see list below).
What % of snow falls do you want to be handled by your system. If you want to make sure that you never ever see snow, then you'll want to use 100%. In a residential application, you may not want to have a system so large that it can handle a freak blizzard.

Snow-Free Area Ratio

When designing a snow melting system, an engineer may specify the amount of allowed snow accumulation as the Snow-Free Area Ratio. There are three different levels.

1 - A Snow-Free Area Ratio of 1 is defined as system that melts all snow as it falls with NO allowed accumulation.

Hospital emergency areas
Helicopter landing pads
Parking garage ramps

0.5 - A Snow-Free Area Ratio of 0.5 is defined as a system with partial snow accumulation on the slab but not all areas.

Steep residential driveways
Commercial sidewalks
Loading docks

0 - A Snow-Free Area Ratio of 0 is defined as system that allows snow accumulation. These systems operate the snow melting system from a cold start resulting in the lowest energy consumption costs and the longest times to start the snow melting.

Flat residential driveways
Patios
Residential sidewalks

New York City BTU Requirements

Table 1 Frequencies of Snow-Melting Surface Heat Fluxes at Steady-State Conditions*
Location	Snowfall Hours per Year	Snow-Free Area Ratio, A_r	Heat Fluxes Not Exceeded During Indicated Percentage of Snowfall Hours from 1982 to 1993, Btu/h · ft²
Location	Snowfall Hours per Year	Snow-Free Area Ratio, A_r	75%	90%	95%	98%	99%	100%
New York, NY, JFK Airport	61	1	91	134	164	207	222	333
		0.5	63	93	118	145	164	325
		0	38	68	86	113	133	316

United States Major City BTU Requirements

Location	Snowfall Hours per Year	Snow-Free Area Ratio, A_r	Heat Fluxes Not Exceeded During Indicated Percentage of Snowfall Hours from 1982 to 1993, Btu/h · ft²
Location	Snowfall Hours per Year	Snow-Free Area Ratio, A_r	75%	90%	95%	98%	99%	100%
Albany, NY	156	1	89	125	149	187	212	321
		0.5	60	86	110	138	170	276
		0	37	62	83	119	146	276
Albuquerque, NM	44	1	70	118	168	191	242	393
		0.5	51	81	96	117	156	229
		0	30	46	61	89	92	194
Amarillo, TX	64	1	113	150	168	212	228	318
		0.5	71	88	108	124	142	305
		0	24	46	62	89	115	292
Billings, MT	225	1	112	164	187	212	237	340
		0.5	64	89	102	116	128	179
		0	22	33	45	60	68	113
Bismarck, ND	158	1	151	199	231	275	307	477
		0.5	83	107	124	148	165	243
		0	16	30	39	60	73	180
Boise, ID	85	1	58	79	100	126	146	203
		0.5	38	52	66	80	89	164
		0	22	31	40	53	62	164
Boston, MA	112	1	96	137	165	202	229	365
		0.5	65	95	112	149	190	365
		0	37	75	93	121	172	365
Buffalo, NY	292	1	115	166	210	277	330	570
		0.5	68	97	127	164	188	389
		0	23	39	55	93	112	248
Burlington, VT	204	1	91	130	154	184	200	343
		0.5	58	78	92	113	128	343
		0	23	40	55	78	94	343
Cheyenne, WY	224	1	119	172	201	229	261	354
		0.5	70	97	111	132	149	288
		0	16	37	52	77	100	285
Chicago, IL, O’Hare International Airport	124	1	96	126	153	186	235	521
		0.5	58	77	94	113	137	265
		0	23	38	53	75	83	150
Cleveland, OH	188	1	85	124	157	195	230	432
		0.5	52	73	92	118	147	235
		0	23	37	47	69	92	225
Colorado Springs, CO	159	1	89	135	167	202	219	327
		0.5	57	82	99	124	140	218
		0	23	45	61	87	112	165
Columbus, OH, International Airport	92	1	71	101	123	149	175	328
		0.5	45	60	71	87	95	184
		0	15	30	45	60	62	135
Des Moines, IA	127	1	120	174	208	255	289	414
		0.5	74	102	120	149	180	310
		0	24	46	69	94	108	231
Detroit, MI, Metro Airport	153	1	92	130	156	192	212	360
		0.5	57	77	94	118	134	227
		0	23	38	47	75	89	194
Duluth, MN	238	1	123	171	201	238	250	370
		0.5	71	97	114	131	142	213
		0	22	32	46	68	77	196
Ely, NV	153	1	67	97	116	134	162	242
		0.5	44	66	83	111	129	241
		0	23	45	67	97	112	240
Eugene, OR	18	1	59	110	139	165	171	224
		0.5	47	77	93	119	122	164
		0	30	53	70	102	120	164
Fairbanks, AK	288	1	91	121	144	174	202	391
		0.5	52	68	78	94	108	200
		0	15	23	31	40	48	87
Baltimore, MD, BWI Airport	56	1	87	139	172	235	282	431
		0.5	69	108	147	200	238	369
		0	46	84	119	181	214	306
Great Falls, MT	233	1	123	171	193	233	276	392
		0.5	71	93	107	129	144	210
		0	17	31	45	60	75	143
Indianapolis, IN	96	1	95	134	158	194	215	284
		0.5	58	80	96	116	124	209
		0	23	38	52	83	99	209
Lexington, KY	50	1	81	108	123	150	170	233
		0.5	49	65	74	85	95	197
		0	16	30	39	46	55	162
Madison, WI	161	1	99	138	164	206	241	449
		0.5	61	82	98	129	163	245
		0	23	39	60	91	113	194
Memphis, TN	13	1	106	141	172	200	206	213
		0.5	75	96	115	118	130	157
		0	40	75	76	90	97	123
Milwaukee, WI	161	1	101	135	164	196	207	431
		0.5	62	83	101	128	147	246
		0	23	46	68	98	120	239
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN	199	1	119	169	193	229	254	332
		0.5	73	99	114	138	154	287
		0	23	45	61	91	113	245
New York, NY, JFK Airport	61	1	91	134	164	207	222	333
		0.5	63	93	118	145	164	325
		0	38	68	86	113	133	316
Oklahoma City, OK	35	1	117	168	215	248	260	280
		0.5	72	101	123	133	144	208
		0	24	46	68	78	113	190
Omaha, NE	94	1	108	148	189	222	259	363
		0.5	65	89	105	128	135	186
		0	23	38	60	90	100	136
Peoria, IL	91	1	95	139	166	201	227	436
		0.5	58	83	99	119	130	250
		0	23	38	53	76	92	228
Philadelphia, PA, International Airport	56	1	94	129	154	208	246	329
		0.5	65	90	112	162	185	267
		0	38	63	79	111	150	225
Pittsburgh, PA, International Airport	168	1	83	125	159	194	219	423
		0.5	51	75	94	111	129	216
		0	16	31	46	68	77	136
Portland, ME	157	1	120	168	195	234	266	428
		0.5	76	108	132	168	199	376
		0	39	67	90	130	152	324
Portland, OR	15	1	50	78	102	177	239	296
		0.5	39	55	81	114	130	199
		0	23	45	60	78	102	128
Rapid City, SD	177	1	139	203	252	312	351	482
		0.5	78	111	132	164	183	245
		0	16	30	38	53	65	179
Reno, NV	63	1	50	72	89	116	137	191
		0.5	36	55	75	105	115	172
		0	23	45	68	91	113	159
Salt Lake City, UT	142	1	52	77	89	110	120	171
		0.5	39	62	76	96	104	171
		0	30	60	75	89	104	171
Sault Ste. Marie, MI	425	1	112	153	183	216	249	439
		0.5	66	88	104	125	142	239
		0	23	37	47	68	83	188
Seattle, WA	27	1	56	107	138	171	205	210
		0.5	45	72	97	122	133	175
		0	37	52	75	96	123	151
Spokane, WA	144	1	67	98	116	141	159	227
		0.5	45	61	73	84	95	145
		0	23	37	45	54	67	112
Springfield, MO	58	1	110	155	179	215	224	292
		0.5	70	95	117	142	171	240
		0	32	54	76	115	129	227
St. Louis, MO, International Airport	62	1	97	147	170	193	227	344
		0.5	66	90	105	126	144	269
		0	31	53	68	97	104	194
Topeka, KS	61	1	102	153	192	234	245	291
		0.5	64	92	110	132	139	185
		0	23	39	52	68	84	167
Wichita, KS	60	1	115	163	209	248	285	326
		0.5	71	96	116	137	153	168
		0	24	45	57	75	83	158
^*Heat fluxes are at the snow-melting surface only. See text for calculation of back and edge heat loss fluxes.

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How Many BTU's Do I Need For Snow Melt?

How Many BTU's Do I Need For Snow Melt?

Important Factors

Snow-Free Area Ratio

New York City BTU Requirements

United States Major City BTU Requirements

Related Articles

Possible causes of spill switch issues

The Armstrong Design Envelope pump vs. variable speed drive mounted on a wall - white paper

Duravent PolyPro Locking Rings

Armstrong Design Envelope Pumping With Integrated Sensorless Control - White Paper (PSPC Explained)

Zoning With tekmar RoomResponse