Using a cooler to keep sap cool

[DaveB]

With the warm temps here but the sap still flowing very well I've been thinking about ideas to keep sap cool. Has anyone every built essentially a giant cooler around their sap tank and used something a CoolBot (http://storeitcold.com/) or refrigeration unit to keep your sap tank cool? I was thinking that it wouldn't take much to build an insulated structure around my tank and then have a through the wall type system, particularly with a CoolBot and an air conditioner.

Has anyone ever done that? I would think that would help in situations where you can't boil every day but it will be warm like the past couple of days. I always have trouble at the end of my season and I'm wondering if this would help.

[DaveB]

I priced out components to build a cooler for my 1000 gallon sap tank and building a frame and 4" of rigid insulation along with a CoolBot and air conditioner unit it would run me around $900. I know it's preferable to boil every day but I also know that is not always an option for everyone, particularly if they are waiting on additional sap. I know that I have days where it doesn't make sense to fire up the evaporator for an hour or two but if I wait a day or two I can boil for several hours.

As a bonus, I'm thinking I can use the unit for refrigerated syrup storage when I have drums that I'm working through over several days instead of having to pack all at once.

Am I missing something in my thinking?

[sebastian]

I built a cooler to do just that I also don't have time to boil sap during the week days as I have a job
I built a insulated container to hold a IBC tote and used a commercial ice machine to cool the sap
I place the ice machine on top of the box while the ice build up around the tote. I considered a coolbot but I used ice because it has stored energy. I'll was able to get down from 54° to 38° in about 12 to 16 hours I was then able to drop the temperature of 38° to 33° in additional 30 hours With 275 gallons in the tote. I am now going to experiment with adding ice in the plastic bag inside the tote to speed up the process
I built it about three months ago and have been experimenting with water
For some reason I couldn't attach photos if you want more info and photos email me at sebastian@Lombardocompanies.com

[ADK_XJ]

Admittedly I have not done this yet but I have been considering (on a smaller scale) building what equates to a sap "root cellar" that would be far enough into the ground (We have a hill behind our barn) that it maintains just above freezing temp much like a root cellar. My thought was to have something framed out either on rollers, skids or maybe even a pulley/winch system that I could drop a tank down into.

Again, much smaller scale for me being a hobbyist. IN terms of what you're talking about, I think you could do it just fine and that's actually what many homebrewer's do in order to maintain a particular fermentation or lager temp - ive seen where guys have basically built a tight rigid foam box around the shell of a fridge and then throw a hot/cold temp gauge in there, turns o the fridge when it needs to cool, allows ambient heat to warm it when too cold.