Quote:
Originally Posted by dippasan
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The circ is on a timer and runs every day from 5pm-7am.
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I don't think fourteen hours in one long ON shot, then 10 hours totally OFF is an optimum strategy at all. One certainly can argue that the normally colder night time hours could benefit from more ON time than would daytime operation. But bear in mind that once circulator operation has cleared ice sufficiently well from the dock, continued circulation is just a waste of power. On the other hand, long OFF intervals in really bitter cold weather can result in formation of significant ice thickness. In shallow water, this could really impact movement of water during ON time and thus impede remelting.
Another down side to very long ON intervals is that an even greater mass of water gets set into motion, which results in melting of a lot more of shoreline ice to either side, possibly affecting abutting properties. State law does say that operation of a circulator should not keep an abutter from accessing the lake ice from shore.
My own feeling is that, in most cases, a better strategy is having a lot of reasonably short ON intervals, spread more around the clock, perhaps favoring the colder night time hours. Not a lot of ice can form in the shorter OFF intervals.