Concentrate Calculator?

[climb.on]

I have a few people that I will be running sap through my RO system. I would like to create a spreadsheet / calculator that can help me determine, for example, if I am given 100 gallons of sap at 2% sugar, how many gallons of concentrate should I deliver at 7% sugar. Any suggestions how I do that?

[maplemas]

They have a app for that ..search for mes ...maple expert solutions

[unc23win]

If you want to achieve 7% from 2% the following formula works. 2.0/7.0=.285 .285*100= 28.5 so in order to take 100 gallons of 2% to 7% you have to remove 71.5 gallons.

The hardest part will be if the settings change on the machine it would add a step but you could use the formula to still determine the correct number of gallons. Say you end up with a tank full of 6% then 6.0/7.0 = .857x100 = 86 subtract 86 from 100 =14 + the original 28.5 = 42.5/6 = 7.08

I think I have the math right I am sure if I don't someone will chime in.

[climb.on]

They have a app for that ..search for mes ...maple expert solutions

Thanks! I just checked it out, but I don't think it will do quite what I want it to.

[climb.on]

If you want to achieve 7% from 2% the following formula works. 2.0/7.0=.285 .285*100= 28.5 so in order to take 100 gallons of 2% to 7% you have to remove 71.5 gallons.

The hardest part will be if the settings change on the machine it would add a step but you could use the formula to still determine the correct number of gallons. Say you end up with a tank full of 6% then 6.0/7.0 = .857x100 = 86 subtract 86 from 100 =14 + the original 28.5 = 42.5/6 = 7.08

I think I have the math right I am sure if I don't someone will chime in.

Perfect! Thank you very much Jared! I was over thinking it. So for another example, when my father in law brings me 45 gallons of sap at 2.2% and I have a barrel of 6.5% concentrate ready to go....I use this formula 2.2% / 6.5% = .338 * 100 = 33.84 gallons (water removed) - 45 gallons (original sap) = 11.15 gallons of concentrate goes back to him. I have the formula in a spreadsheet now, so it makes it very simple to just plug in numbers.

Those numbers "seem" to make sense, but I am just getting started with the RO and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all this. My father in law and I split the cost of building the RO and I have a couple hobby syruping neighbors I'd like to help out if I can. This will be very helpful!

Someone please chime in if these numbers don't seem correct.

[meadster02]

I don't think the numbers in your figure are correct the formula is for 100 gallons, so you would remove 33.84 gallons from 100 to end up with 66.16 gallons of 6.5% sap.

[happy thoughts]

I also don't think your numbers are correct and think the math in your example could be simplified. I think you'd be cheating your F-I-L :o
If the first part of your math is correct and he brought you 50 gallons you'd give him 16.91 gallons back. Bringing you 5 less gallons nets him almost 6 gallons less so something isn't right

2.2% / 6.5% = .338 * 100 = 33.84 gallons. You don't want to subtract this from 45 gallons (which it looks like you did) but multiply by 45% (45 gallons are 45% of 100 gallons) to get 15.21 gallons

or you can get the same result from this.....

2.2% / 6.5% = .338 * 45 gallons = 15.21 gallons

I could be wrong, too, but this amount makes more sense to me using UncWins formula

[climb.on]

I also don't think your numbers are correct and think the math in your example could be simplified. I think you'd be cheating your F-I-L :o
If the first part of your math is correct and he brought you 50 gallons you'd give him 16.91 gallons back. Bringing you 5 less gallons nets him almost 6 gallons less so something isn't right

2.2% / 6.5% = .338 * 100 = 33.84 gallons. You don't want to subtract this from 45 gallons (which it looks like you did) but multiply by 45% (45 gallons are 45% of 100 gallons) to get 15.21 gallons

or you can get the same result from this.....

2.2% / 6.5% = .338 * 45 gallons = 15.21 gallons

I could be wrong, too, but this amount makes more sense to me using UncWins formula

2.2% / 6.5% = .338 * 45 gallons = 15.21 gallons Somehow that's the formula I ended up with in my spreadsheet, but described it wrong in my post above. Thanks for catching that! Definitely don't want to be giving my FIL the short end of the deal! :)

[climb.on]

Quick update...I went and measured what I had in the RO Concentrate barrel and it matches very closely to what this formula said I should have based on what I started with! That's pretty dang cool man. Thanks again for the help!

[SDdave]

You may want to run that system a while for yourself first to see the limitations. I see you are at 70 taps, at 1 to 1.5 gal per day per tap you would have to run it for close to 10 hours to get your 7%. That doesn't leave much time for others after cleaning cycles. Just my $0.02.

SDdave

[climb.on]

Good point SDdave. I haven't been running at a gallon per tap per day, yet so I haven't had a good feel for how much sap I will have on good days. Mostly, I just need to run my Father In law's, since we split the cost of the unit. And he just has 30 taps. But I am loving the system now that it's running right!

[SDdave]

Good point SDdave. I haven't been running at a gallon per tap per day, yet so I haven't had a good feel for how much sap I will have on good days. Mostly, I just need to run my Father In law's, since we split the cost of the unit. And he just has 30 taps. But I am loving the system now that it's running right!

Whew! FIL's are different, you have to do his. Glad to see that you got it up and running good now. You'll love it taking out all that extra water, makes things go so much faster.


SDdave