Dock Damage

[Frank]

Originally Posted by jimbob1603

I guess general concensus feels that the circulator should be run whenever ice formation is probable; don't let ice form around the dock.

I'm not worried about damage from iceflows, I'm in a protected cove.

But, I am very worried about the cost of running a 1/2 horsepower motor for 12 hours a day for 5 months; sounds very expensive.

Let's see... a 1/2 horsepower output motor running at 75% efficiency takes about 500 watts of input power. So, it takes 1 kilowatt hour of power to run for 2 hours, or 6 kWH for 1/2 a day. At 12 cents per kWH, that's 75 cents a day to run your motor, or around $100 total for the four or five months you need it.

Hopefully, I got those numbers right.