If you aren't going to get snow, shut it off until you do. Clear ice is o.k., as long as nobody walks on it.
We get snow very consistently which is one of the reasons our ice is hard to maintain (very slushy usually). If we do plan on turning it on only a little bit per day, how many hours do you recommend?
I can't recommend a run time. It all depends on ambient temp. I tell my customers that they need to keep an area open that is equal to 10% of the total pond surface area. Most don't and don't have problems. I have calculated my area to be around 5%, but then again I am not really pushing the BOD of the pond. (Biochemical Oxygen Demand)
So my "run time" recommendation is "long enough to keep an area open that is 10% of the surface area of the pond".
