Electrical Consumption

[GeneralStark]

I'm curious what others electricity cost/gallon of syrup produced has been. This year with a 3 hp vac. pump running basically constantly through the season, a 1 hp blower on the evap., a 1 hp. sap pump, an electric releaser with a 3/4 hp. submersible pump, electric heater for equipment room, lights, heat lamp for sap lifter, occasional tool use, and other random stuff like cell phone charging I was at $1.18/gal. of syrup.

To calculate, divide your electrical cost by gallons of syrup produced.

[upsmapleman]

I never thought about it that way but should. I run 2 vac pumps a 5 1/2 hp and a 7 hp, 1200 gph ro, steamaway blower, blower for arch, electric heater for ro room, lots of lights. spent $1100 on electric made 1300 gallon of syrup for about $.85 a gallon.

[maple flats]

What are you using for the elec. cost, just the months of production and clean up or the whole 12 month total. If using Jan-Apr I spent $92 and made 173 gal thus $.532 a gal. If using 12 months, I spent 3x that. Next year the total may be zero since my solar now covers my electric usage. On the other hand, I ran 2 gas powered vacuum pumps. I haven't totaled the fuel cost yet, but it will scare me. I used about 70% as much gas as last year (shorter season) but only made 52% as much syrup.

[GeneralStark]

I am using electrical consumption during the production season which for me was March 12 - April 13th plus a little on either end of the season for setup and clean up as I run the vac. pump when pulling taps and rinsing tubing, and I had a couple short boils to clean the pans. During the off season my consumption is pretty minimal. A chest freezer for storing maple cream and open 5 gallon jugs of syrup, occasional lights in the sugar house and occasional tool use.

I'm really curious about electrical cost to produce syrup, not total business consumption.

It would also be interesting to look at total energy consumption as well, especially for those using gas vac. pumps and generators.

[Flat Lander Sugaring]

GMP BENT ME OVER SO HARD I STILL CANT SIT DOWN! When employees of electrical companies come in charge them double see how they like it! My sugar house just march $260. our vacuum shack for 13 days $274
welcome to the theory of spread the wealth through social unequality electrical bills HELLO SOCIALISM.

[PerryFamily]

Only thing on electrical I can comment on is that before I put on a insulated room for the Ro my biggest electrical expense was electric heater to keep RO from freezing.

I also ran 2 gas 5.5 hp delaval pumps and spent $350 in case for the month of march. Plan to switch to electric if possible.

[sjdoyon]

We run a 30,000 watt generator to run our RO, Vacuum pump, evaporator blower, filter press, lights, etc. Our cost this past season was .93 cents per gallon. We boiled 30 days and ran the generator a few other days for checking leaks and pulling spouts. We ran a separate 100cfm Indiana vacuum pump which required about 10 gallons of gas per 24 hrs (when your system is tight).

[GeneralStark]

GMP BENT ME OVER SO HARD I STILL CANT SIT DOWN! When employees of electrical companies come in charge them double see how they like it! My sugar house just march $260. our vacuum shack for 13 days $274
welcome to the theory of spread the wealth through social unequality electrical bills HELLO SOCIALISM.

What are you paying per kwh? $274 to run a vacuum pump for 13 days seems very high. What type of pump is it?

Welcome to VT's utilities being owned by Quebec corporations through NIMBYism. HydroQuebec ain't cheap my friend.

[maple flats]

Before I went solar, electric cost $.165/kwh with taxes, here in the spend and tax state. Then I put is solar and even though I produced more than I used every month, I had to pay the utility $22.93 each month for the line charge to send them free power. Talk about unfair monopolies.

[GeneralStark]

Some of the smaller utilities here in VT have been making noise about limiting net-metering projects. With all the state and federal incentives, more people than anticipated have been installing systems, and with all the lease options available now it is pretty appealing for many folks. Solar is not just for treehuggers anymore.

We don't have a great site for solar, but we have been considering investing in a local project that would enable us to offset our electrical consumption. I like the idea of electricity being produced locally. We are becoming far too reliant on Hydro Quebec since VT Yankee power started going elsewhere.

[sapman]

Looks like I'm at around $1.47/gal for electric. Power in the woods was only about $.42 of that. Different company and supplier out there. I shoulda payed more attention to bills earlier, because I was being charged over double the going rate for electricity supply at home!

[GeneralStark]

I thought I would revive this thread to see how people did this year with electrical consumption. This season I am at about $1.10/gal. of syrup produced, so a little better than last season. This year I added the RO and changed my releaser pump to a 3/4 hp 120 V submersible to a 1hp 3 phase motor controlled by a VFD. No major changes beyond that. The Vac. pump ran longer than last season as we went from 3/8 - 4/16 running the pump. Somewhat intermittent during the early part of the season due to extended freeze-ups then 24/7 for almost 3 weeks up until the end. Even with 200 more taps, but more time checking for leaks (Thanks RO!), I was able to run the pump no higher than 50hz and often down to 42hz and maintain 27.5".

I thought my bill would be higher compared to last year considering the RO addition, but I did add taps and made almost twice as much syrup as last season. The blower on the Evap. ran considerably less and I used less lighting due to less boiling at night.

All in all I think $1.10/gal syrup produced is pretty reasonable. With more taps next season I should be able to drop that even further.

[unc23win]

Mine was $1.30 a gallon, which is not bad I know we have higher rates than most. I actually expected it to be more. A slightly more consistent year would have yielded more syrup and lowered the cost per gallon some. I am actually amazed as to how little my bill went up from say February when all I was doing was keeping my RO room warm to March where we were running everything.

[GeneralStark]

My electrical cost per gallon of syrup produced this season was about $1.10 which is down from last season (2018) when it was about $1.50/gal. We got lots of sap in 2018 (record production) with low sugar content and had a nearly 3-month long season so the RO and vacuum pump ran considerably more than this season. This year the season was exactly one month long and the sugar content was considerably higher. We didn't boil until 3/15 but did run the vac. pump some in Feb. and early March. I am using an electric canner now and am running a compressor for the diaphragm pump in the filter press.

I am hoping to add some more taps for 2020 but no major equipment additions are planned. I am considering a refrigerated bulk tank down the road for keeping late season sap/concentrate cold, which will increase electric consumption, but other than that my usage should stay pretty consistent in the $1.10-$1.50/ gallon range, where it has been.

[Bucket Head]

A bulk tank won't add too much to anyone's total usage. Mine holds the cold well and does not run very often.

Steve

[eagle lake sugar]

We live near a college and always get a few college kids out for Maine Maple Sunday etc. Invariably I always get questions like,"have you considered switching to wind power or solar?" I'm like," our season is 3 to 4 weeks long, after the vacuum pump and r/o are shut off we use very little electricity." They simply aren't aware that spending 15k to 20k for "alternative energy" will never pay itself back.