How much wood per season?

[rschoo]

I was wondering, all you wood burners out there, how much of what kind of wood are you using per season?

I guess the pertinent info would be
size and type of evaporator (drop, raised,flat,make,model)
how much sap you boiled for how much syrup
Evaporation rate
How much wood(full or face chord?)
What species or percentages of mixed species
how long since it was cut
How you store it

I know this sounds like a lot to ask but I an very interested in the efficiency of the various evaporators out there and have'nt seen any info about this gathered in any of the posts.

I have a home made 14"x71" 2 section flat pan
I boiled close to 300 gallons of sap this year for 7 gallons of syrup
my evaporation rate was about 7.5 gals / hr
I went through a full chord and a half of aspen that was 1 year seasoned stacked outside, a face chord of black cherry-apple mixed was very dry, a face chord of red oak was lying on the ground for a year when I cut it this spring, another face chord of mixed maple-iron wood-birch 1 year cut and stacked outside, and a little cedar that was standing dead.

All together I think I went through about 2-1/2 full chords of mixed wood. Some was pretty wet as it was all stored out in the open. I am building a wood house this week. It's going to hold 6 full chords so hopefully I can use half a year and have 2 year seasoned wood.
Does this sound right if I upgrade to a 2x6?

[Mike]

I hear its about 1 cord to 20-25 gals of syrup.....Not sure if evaporator size makes a difference....Thats what it was when I had my 2x6 wood fired rig....

[mountainvan]

here goes: 2 1/2x10 dropflue airtight with blowers dg-20,000gals sap through ro turned into roughly 5,000 gal 8% concentrate( the concentrate is what's boiled)- evap rate 70gals/hr avg.- about 6 full cords mixed hardwood and 1/2 cord of pine(mainly used starting the fire and ending the boil, no coals to worry about)- wood is 2 years old, first year open then under a tarp for winter, 2nd year in a wood shed that holds 10 cords( use wood to heat my house also). when I had a 2x6 the best year I had I made 100 gals syrup and used about 3 cords of dry wood. hope this helps.

[brookledge]

I get 25 gal. of syrup per cord. That is with a pre-heater. I burn mostly pine and hemlock slabs mixed with some hardwood slabs.
When I had my 3X8 without a pre-heater I'd get around 17 gal/cord.
If you boil alot of short days your efficiency will go down vs less longer boils. Over the season extra start ups will use alot more wood. Most would say that a good mixture of hardwood and softwood is the best. When you fill the fire box the soft wood ignites very quickly to keep the boil going and then the hardwood kicks in and burns after the softwood has burnt out.
Keith

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

I probably get around 17 gallon per cord on a normal year. With sugar content down this year, I would imagine it was around 14 or 15.

With that size pan and a preheater, I would think if you designed the arch correctly and burned very dry seasoned wood, you could probably get 10 to 12 gph or possibly a little more. :D

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Also, get all your wood for next year in by June if at all possible and try to cut stuff that has been seasoned for at least 1 or 2 years, more if possible. It needs to be inside or underneath a cover. A plastic tarp doesn't work very good as it doesn't let air cirulate and moisture escape. If you must store it outside, better to make a nice makeshift roof or cover out of some tin or even old tin. :D

[Fred Henderson]

I am filling my shed with hickory right now. I will use it and some Tamrack next season. Are you guys talking face cord or full, if face cord ,how long to you cut your wood?

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

Fred,

I cut my wood about 18" and figure on a full cord. I take total dismensions of my wood multiplied and divide it by 128.

[maple flats]

I used 1.75 full cords of well seasoned hardwood with very little hemlock slab included to make 42 gal of syrup this year. I have a 2 x 6 leader drop flue with preheater. I started with a flue pan hood but after having problems with what seemed to be excessive leaking from the inside gutter of the hood which went back into the pan I gave up for this year on the hood, will make improvements before next year. Also started with a blower that blew too many sparks out the loose fitting front doors so I gave up on that too. Both to be redesigned before next year unless I am able to find a bigger unit I can afford. With all that said I boiled sap with a season long average of 2.9% sugar into 42 gal of syrup. The wood was cut and stacked outside for at least 10 months and then moved into and or up against the sugarhouse during Christmas vacation and I started with 5.1 full cords and ended with 3.35 full cords. The species of wood were beech ~40%, cherry~15%, soft maple ~25%, and ash~15% and hemlock~5%. A friend of my future son in law also brought 1 mini pick-up load of mixed kiln dried ends & scraps which didn't get counted in. This was about 4 wheel barrow loads, consisting of poplar, ash, oak and maple with the poplar being about 50-60% and the others being about equally devided. This friend works at a sawmill and asked if I could use any, they have a hard time getting rid of especially the poplar. He had it all cut at 20" length except some were shorter. Most seemed to be 1 x 6 and 1 x 8 which I found burned best if I ran a stack thru the splitter before burning. Right now I have about 4.5 full cords cut for next year and will be finished with next year's wood before the end of the month. Any stacked outside except that against the sugarhouse sets on logs up off the ground and gets a piece of scrap tin roofing on top to shed water. That at the sugarhouse sets on the logs but the sugarhouse has 3' overhangs and the wood is 20" so i use no extra tin there.

[Sugarmaker]

Wood used,
We have a wood shed that is right at 1280 cubic feet (10 x 8 x 16) We made 100 gallons of syrup on cut pallets from that area mostly mixed hard and soft wood. (lot of air space in this) most were in the 20-24 inch long range. Then I also used a additional cord 128 cubic feet (4 x 4 x 8) of 1 year old mixed Ash and maple which was split and 18 20 inches long. We made another 25 gallons on this so the 25 gallon per cord rate is just about right on the mark.
We have a 3 x 10 King drop flue, with blower, hoods, and preheater.
We gathered 5300 gallons to make the 125 gallons of syrup.
All wood was stored under cover.
Chris

[rschoo]

Boy thanks guys!

Thats a great response. I uess those factory built units are a lot more efficient than the home made variety like mine. If my pan had a flue section I believe I could get the rate up to 10 or 12. My fire box is quite small about 12" wide between the bricks and 18" long to the beginning of the slope. I burned a lot of wood because a lot of it was split down to less than 1 inch because it was wet. I'm definately going to upgrade to a 2x6 for next year if I can find one in my budget.

Bob.

[BryanHadlock]

We are using an older 3x10

All I can tell you is that we cut our wood burning in half by doing the following:

Mixing seasoned hard and soft wood.

Shortening the legnth of the wood so not to " stuff " the firebox. This gives more area for the exhaust fumes " smoke" to burn off, increasing the heat throughout the entire evaporator.

We also decreased the size of our flue (Chimney pipe) from 12 to 10 inches in diameter. This increased the overall draft speed and caused the fire to burn hotter.

Something else that can be done, but not bus us was to increase the hight of your stack pipe. In some cases it makes a huge difference.

Good Luck!

[Sugar Daddy]

I used a face cord of mixed hardwood to boil 325 gallons of sap down to 7 gallons of syrup. Cooking in a 2.5 x 4 flat pan, no pre-heater, with the pan sitting on concrete blocks. It evaporated at 10 gph. The wood was a mix of soft maple - a live tree cut down a year and a half ago, and oak from a standing dead tree cut last fall. I stack the wood as high as I can just inside the firebox to keep as much flame as possible on the bottom of the pan.

Bob, my setup isn't much different from yours. Following through on your plans for a woodshed will result in a lot more heat from your wood, and a lot less steam produced in your firebox!