Hot water circulating pump question

[CornerWrench]

I part time manage an old hospital built in 1913 but converted to condominiums in Central Montana. I have duct tape stories I'll share some other time but slowly I'm convincing them to spend money and upgrade some issues. This was my latest upgrade. We had a situation where we get constant pinhole leaks in the copper hot water lines in this room due to turbulence.(plumber explained it to me that way at least) So I had the local plumber come out and they replaced it with aqua-therm.

My question though is this circulating pump. It runs 24/7. I had a thermostat put on to shut it down(you can see it hanging near the pump. It just clips on around the copper) Unfortunately it shuts the pump down too often and complaints are coming my way on how long it takes to get hot water. So I'm thinking about a timer instead.
Would the pump be better off just running all the time?
Does a constant stop and start wear it out faster?
How much energy do you suspect that pump uses?
If it uses little energy and would last longer just running all the time I may just forget about it.

 

[phishfood]

I don't know specifics on your pump, but generally, purpose built recirculating pumps are very low horsepower, so use very little electricity.

 

[digitalplumber]

My father in law, a former commercial plumber, had his on a timer that would run during known peek time periods: 5 am-9am, for instance.

In reality it just needs tom run prior to the first need for hot water at the furthest location, right, because then if everyone is up cooking and showering, the hot water is there.

At minimum I would put on a timer, but I am no expert.

 

[CornerWrench]

Thanks for the responses. I think I may go the timer route. Get an intermatic timer and set it to run during peak hours. my problem may be eliminated with the aqua therm but this pipe is woefully undersized for this building and the copper was wearing very thin. The plumber believes my problems were limited to the piping around the pump but I have this fear that it will just be pushed further out into the building. As long as the leaks occurred in the boiler room I'd catch them before any real damage occurred.

But a new issue has emerged. The 2" galvanized drain pipe for one of the hot water tanks is leaking at the cap. Very corroded as well. We are removing it and replacing it with a brass nipple and cap. seems like that would have been decided when it was being built but maybe there is a reason for galvanized instead of brass.

That's okay. I'm just happy to be managing an annuity for a plumber I like anyway.

 

[LiQuId]

timer would be an easy fix, high flow rates will cause premature wear and pitting of copper lines, as would cheap copper like type M.

galvanized is cheaper than brass.