When to turn the pump on?

[MillbrookMaple]

I'm not sure when is the right temp/condition to turn on the vac pump. Temp forcast the other day was for 38 and it was already at freezing at 7am so I turned the pump on and went to work expecting it to help and I managed to get about 75 gallons of sap for the day. (Not worth the electric bill) It was around 12/33 the day before so I figured that it just took all of the day just to thaw things out. So I was sitting here this morning debating if I should turn the pump on before work again. The releaser slushed up around 5pm after an ok run. It was around 20 last night, it snowed and the forcast says it will be around 37 today. I decided I'm not going to turn it on today and go to work but I wanted to see if anyone has a general rule they follow besides turn the pump on any time it is above freezing.

[mapleack]

If it's above 32 it gets turned on. It's pretty much impossible to predict what the weather will do over the course of the day, windy, calm, sun, etc. Therefore if its above 32 I turn it on and cross my fingers. You'll end up with more sap over the season doing this on average than the electric will cost. We figured last season that our electric bill was only up about $120 from running vacuum alot and an RO. Doesn't take much extra syrup to pay back $120.

[Thompson's Tree Farm]

Run it 24/7 unless you get into the low 20's

[Dill]

Last year the land owner and I were pretty stingy about running the pump, just kept seeing dollar signs with wasted electric.When it was all said and done it cost 20 bucks for the season. Now I see dollar signs with how much sap I must have missed.

[adk1]

I am seriously looking into a sap puller for next year. I know that there are pros and cons on them. I have about a 120 tap bush, using CV's. Think it would be ideal for me. anyone using one would love to hear from you

[Russell Lampron]

On a sunny day with little or no wind the sap can be running at 28*. I turn the pump on when I think that I may get a run. The electric bill is minimal when you consider that 40 to 50 gallons of sap is a gallon of syrup more or less.

[MillbrookMaple]

After Mapleack's post yesterday morning I decided to come back home around 11am and turn the pump on. We got 650 gallons of sap and made 10.75 gallons of syrup. Lesson learned and thanks for the input.

[Brent]

Don't know how big the motor is on your vac pump but here's the math on our 1- 1/2 Hp pump

220 Volts x 10 amps = 2200 watts or 2.2 Kw

2.2 Kw for 1 hour at 10 cents/Kw Hour = 22 cents

for a day say 10 hours about 2 bucks

75 gallons = about $ 80 worth of syrup.

Not worth it ???? I sure think it is.