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PerryW
04-05-2012, 07:38 AM
Does anyone know (approximately) how much your electric bill would go up if I installed a vacuum pump and ran it for the whole season?

I'm thinking of asking the neighbor (to my sugarbush) if I can install a breaker in his panel and run power for my vacuum pump...

two other questions...

1) Will a 20 amp - 220 volt be sufficient?

2) Can I install the vacuum pump at a point NOT at lowest elevation of my tubing system? (it would be about 20' in elevation above tank and would save lots of electrical service wire. The bush rises another 280 feet in elevation above this)

thanks

Walling's Maple Syrup
04-05-2012, 09:41 AM
Does anyone know (approximately) how much your electric bill would go up if I installed a vacuum pump and ran it for the whole season?

I'm thinking of asking the neighbor (to my sugarbush) if I can install a breaker in his panel and run power for my vacuum pump...

two other questions...

1) Will a 20 amp - 220 volt be sufficient?

2) Can I install the vacuum pump at a point NOT at lowest elevation of my tubing system? (it would be about 20' in elevation above tank and would save lots of electrical service wire. The bush rises another 280 feet in elevation above this)

thanksPerry we run two woods with approx. 800 taps in each woods with the smallest pump that Airablo makes with motor, pump, and humidity trap all mounted on the same platform. This runs off 110 electricity and we figured running it 24 hrs./day only costs us about 1 dollar a day to run. As far as breaker size and wire it depends on how far pump is from electric service because there is voltage drop for long distances. You can install pump higher then some of the taps, just run vac. line down to releaser at lowest elevation.

Amber Gold
04-05-2012, 09:42 AM
Perry,

I run an A10 Atlantic Fluidics vacuum pump...3 phase motor so it's a bit more efficient than a single phase and it draws 4.6amps. I run it 24/7 during the season and I figure it costs ~$4/day to run. This pump is oversized a bit, but the price was right and it gives me some flexibility with vac. leaks. The vac. pump is 900' from the releaser and tank. It's pretty much irrelevent where the vac. pump is to the releaser.

Basically, you'll need 1cfm per 100 taps for a rotary vane pump, but would recommend 2-3cfm per 100 taps for a liquid ring pump. You're looking at a 3/4hp to 1hp motor, which running at 220V, should be fine on 20 amps. I have a friend who was running a delaval 73 (6cfm) on 8-900 taps and he was pulling decent vac. levels, but no buffer if he had a leak.

spud
04-05-2012, 04:57 PM
I run a 10 HP Kinney two stage pump and it cost me about $25.00 per day to run.

Spud

Russell Lampron
04-05-2012, 05:20 PM
Does anyone know (approximately) how much your electric bill would go up if I installed a vacuum pump and ran it for the whole season?

I'm thinking of asking the neighbor (to my sugarbush) if I can install a breaker in his panel and run power for my vacuum pump...

two other questions...

1) Will a 20 amp - 220 volt be sufficient?

2) Can I install the vacuum pump at a point NOT at lowest elevation of my tubing system? (it would be about 20' in elevation above tank and would save lots of electrical service wire. The bush rises another 280 feet in elevation above this)

thanks

Do you already have the vacuum pump? I think 20 amps would be enough but knowing how many amps the motor needs will answer that question. My electric bill for the sugar house averages $5 per day or about 150 per month. That is for the vacuum, RO, RO room heater, sugar house lights and any miscellaneous electrical needs. The RO uses most of that. My vacuum pump has a 1.5hp motor and if I remember right uses around 7 amps.

You can set up the vacuum pump anywhere you want it. As close as possible to the electric service is best. Mine is at the sugar house and my releaser is 1600 feet away. I ran a 1.25" pipe from the pump to the releaser. The elevation change isn't a problem. Vacuum doesn't care if it is going uphill or downhill to get to the woods.

PerryW
04-05-2012, 05:26 PM
Do you already have the vacuum pump? I think 20 amps would be enough but knowing how many amps the motor needs will answer that question.

No vacuum pump yet. Just wanted to know if my neighbor's electric bill would go up $5 per month of $100 per month.

I thought that any amperage printed on the nameplate of the motor would be under maximum load, so you could not expect to use a constant 7 amps?? I dunno, maybe a vacuum pump runs at full bore all the time. I know my table saw draws only a couple amps until you try to rip a knotty 4x4 than the lights start dimming and the draw goes up to 12 amps.

PerryW
04-05-2012, 05:32 PM
7 amps x 117 volts = 819 watts or (at 18 cents per KWH) = $0.15 per hour

$0.15 x 24 hours x 30 days = $108 per month for a 7 AMP 117 Volt motor running continuously.

maplwrks
04-05-2012, 05:48 PM
Hey Perry, Just about all of the replies here are good advice. The big question is, How big is the pump going to be? This is the deciding factor and it will help answer your question. I myself have an OSR A10 pump, which is hooked into a neighbors house. The bush is 500 taps and I run the pump 24/7 for 6 weeks during the season.(except this year!) I pay the entire power bill for the time my pump is on. Usually about $225 covers it.

batsofbedlam
04-05-2012, 08:17 PM
I ran a 2hp Busch pump for 7 weeks without shutting it off. I had the VFD programmed to run from a max of 50 hertz to a low of 20 hertz. My bill was $203, which at our rates equals $4 per 24 hours.