Cost of your evaporation rate?

[twin6]

I’m not sure if this has been covered in another thread, so bear with me if this is old hat. I am curious about how much one’s evaporation rate costs. This comes up when people ask me how much they might expect to invest in a hobby rig. We tend to ask how many trees they have to tap, or how much syrup they want to make, or how much time they want to spend or what their budget is. Then we point them to the smaller commercially produced rigs and wish them well. I’ve looked at this from a different angle, which is the capital cost of the evaporation rate. If you spent $3,000 on a stock 2 by 6 that had a 30 gph evaporation rate, and you had no preheater, this works out to $100 per gph as a capital cost. Has anyone else here calculated what their cost was for their evaporation rate? Add in the costs of your preheater, blower, hood or any other hardware that has a direct effect on the evaporation rate, and run the numbers. It is an interesting exercise. In building my own rig, I saved a lot of money where I could, but it is a flat pan that boils off 1 gph per sq ft, and my sense is that the tradeoff of efficiency against the cost savings works out to about the same cost per gph we'd have seen if we'd bought a commercial rig that cost more and boiled more.

[adk1]

Interesting. Mine is $55 basically

[spencer11]

Mine is around $15 per sq ft, I also didn't buy a new rig, and got mine pretty cheap

[adk1]

I didnt calculate by SqFt, more by how much my evap and improvements cost me divided by my GPH that I am getting.

[twin6]

Thanks adk1 - that is the calculation that interests me, regardless of whether one paid retail for an off-the-shelf rig, or built one from scratch. I'd love to hear from others what they come up with - including those who factor in their RO's. I have a hunch you've done very well. I think I came out at close to $100 per gph cutting every corner I could, but still paying for a custom pan and stack base. There's no right or wrong number. I am really interested in seeing how close or far apart different folks come once they do the math. In the end, it might make a difference on how I respond to those who ask what is at stake in getting into sugaring at least at the hobby level.

[jmayerl]

I don't think you can find a 2x6 for $3000.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

I don't think you can find a 2x6 for $3000.
2x6=2350, steam hood 150, 75 preheater, insulating blanket 90, blower duct 65, avg gal an hr 30/2730 = 91hr
now this is just cost of equipment, every ones time is worth something, so fig minimum wage in there.

2730+8.60=2738.6 / 30=91.28

[Tweegs]

6 grand for a new 2x6, $450 for a hood and roughly $250 for a pre-heater = $6,700.
Was running 30 gph flat out, everything dialed in with the best wood before the hood and pre-heater, estimate 35 gph with the hood and pre-heater.

Using your formula it works out to $191.43

[Mike in NY]

we run a home made 2x6 w/ a pre heater and on a REALLY good day we might push 35 gph through it. Over the course of the season I wish we averaged 30 gph. at 30gph I'd be about 35$ per gph

[adk1]

2x6=2350, steam hood 150, 75 preheater, insulating blanket 90, blower duct 65, avg gal an hr 30/2730 = 91hr
now this is just cost of equipment, every ones time is worth something, so fig minimum wage in there.

2730+8.60=2738.6 / 30=91.28
I thought you were getting better than 30GPH with your rig?

[tuckermtn]

600 front pan, 2000 rear pan, 6000 for arch - no preheater. $8600 approx and we boil between 100 and 120 gph. so between $70-85/gph.
Now look at an RO for getting rid of water. $4000 for old RO that does around 400 gph. $10 per gph.

[Paddymountain]

$7000.00 for everything divided by 50gph = $140.00 !!! Maybe I should have bought a Harley.

[shane hickey]

12000 back pan 8200 front pan 2100 finish pan 9000 for arch
Evaporate 2200 gph 2 ro profit around 1800 an hour.

[adk1]

$7000.00 for everything divided by 50gph = $140.00 !!! Maybe I should have bought a Harley.

what was the costs you have assocaiated to come up with that?

[Paddymountain]

Everything I own maple related!!!!

[twin6]

The calculation is most helpful not when you add in everything maple related, but when you add up the arch, pans, hood, preheater, RO and whatever else you have as your "rig" -- the hardware that does the evaporation. Tuckermtn's calculation shows that dollar for dollar, an RO can buy evaporation at a lower capital cost than, say, a rig with more surface area. I'm hoping others will try the calculation, even if they aren't willing to share, but we all learn on this site from each other when we share.

[adk1]

Everything I own maple related!!!!yeah I figured that was what you meant. Just do what you boil sap with.

[tltberry]

This year I set up a concrete block arch with 4 steam table pans. It cost about $200 and is averaging 5 gph so far. So capital investment = $40/ gph.

[jrmaple]

2' x 8' evaporator (all stainless steal pans, 5' drop flue)= $2150 (including stack, bricks, other insulation, floats, blower and 110 gallon stainless gravity bulk tank, basically everything needed). GREAT DEAL!
Two 330 gallon cage tanks= $275. Buckets and tubing for 350 taps= around $400. Using an old storage building, repairs= $150... Total= $2975
Averaging 58-60 gallons an hour sometimes more or less puts my cost at $49.5 gph including all investments, just for the evaporator and bulk tank= $35.8 gph

[Daves Maple Farm]

Ok but should you not calculate this say over a period of five years which
is normal depreciation rate me thinks? (That is depreciation on equipment)

[jrmaple]

Why not an average rate per hour? ratio of sap/syrup, 40/1, boiling 60 gph= $120 (in CT I am getting an average of $80 per gallon) then minus the investment put in 120-49.5= $70.5 gph....? Would this be right or work?

[ennismaple]

About $80 per GPH factoring in RO cost and evaporator arch and pans. Kinda scary to look at it this way but also helpful. We have plans to add another membrane so I added in that cost and our rate drops to $50 per GPH. Looks like that new membrane is a good investment!

[bowtie]

i just got a quote of around $10,000 for a 30" x 8' high efficiency arch with pre-heater and hood, figure the should boil about 100 gph, (std rig around 65 gph) that puts it about $100 gph. if you start adding all the rest of the stuff it gets high and i do not have an r/o or vac /tubing. the cost seems expensive but when factor the amount of time needed to boil is lessened dramitically it makes it more reasonable. at least that is what i am telling my wife so she will let me order this rig!!:lol: but in all seriousness i overestimated the amount of time i "had" to actualy boil, now i don't mind sitting around the evap for hours but when the sap just isn't moving out the tank fast enough it can get tiresome and i get very anxious. when i started i did not want to spend alot on bigger rig becasue i did not realize i would get the bug this bad, should have known better, but i sure wish i would have purchased at least a 2'x6' then, oh well!! you can't put a price on happiness, that is a least until you run out of money!! guess the point go big or get a comfy chair you will need it!

[ennismaple]

Bowtie - When you start out you think "Isn't boiling fun!?!" After 3 weeks of babysitting the evaporator for every waking hour you wish you'd gone bigger on the pans and had more RO membranes! I enjoy boiling - but it wears very thin after an 8 hour day! I figure we boil 100+ hours in a good season but a 2nd RO membrane will reduce that by 40%. I can think of a lot of things to do with that extra 40 hours!

[Farmboy]

Im doing Pretty good.
2.5'X8' arch and flue pan $500, new syrup pan $1000, blower $50, arch board $100 = $1650 I havent had it set up very efficently the last 2 years and have only gotten 50gph out of it so that equals $33 per gph. Hopefully I will have it set up more efficiently this year and will get 60 gph out of it and get down to $27.5 per gph.

[sapman]

Looking at it this way, new equipment dealers may go out of business, lol! I figure I'm at about $120/gph with evaporator alone, but $42/gph factoring in RO. Of course, that doesn't include a new membrane every so often, or the other related expenses. Guess that's what it was the first year I had the RO.

[Dave Y]

While all this calculating maybe a fun exercise, if you do not depreciate this over the life of the equipment all of your calculating is for not. Also you must figure in what you sell your syrup for and deduct it from your costs to get a real sense of what things cost.