All, thanks for the information.
I setup a line tracker on the water heater and after a couple days checked it and it worked at 3.33 cents per hour. I forgot to input the newer rate I had written down which was $0.069 but had done a calculation before estimating 500 watts. .5kWh x 0.069 cents per hour = $0.0345 cents per hour which was fairly close to the tracker. So, $0.0345 per hour x 24 hours a day = $0.828 per day. So, my original $1/day is very reasonable having no consideration for the fence and wear. If I'm off, let me know. Thank you all. What's your view? Sorry about what happened to you DejaVu.