Oil Tank evaporator

[Millsy]

I have a question for you guys that have built an oil tank arch and have good performance. How many inches from the grate of the fire box to the bottom of the pan and the best air gap below the pan after the fire box?
Thanks John

[psparr]

I have about 16. Works for me. My opinion, go deep, you can always shorten it up.
The space at the back of the arch should roughly equal the square inches of the stack your using.

Example. An 8" stack has about 50 sq. ". So the space in a 24" wide arch should be about 2". I have found less than that to be ideal for me.
Good luck.

[Millsy]

What about the height from the bottom of the fire box to the bottom of the pan?
Is the board insulation something that can be bought at Home Depot?

[barnbc76]

The fire box grate to the bottom of the pan should be about 16". After the firebox where you build the wall/ramp it should be about 2-3" after insulation/brick. As for the insulation board I don't think you will find it at a big box hardware store.

[psparr]

I meant height. Sorry for the confusion. A roll of ceramic blanket will run you about $70. It's a pretty big investment, but worth every penny.

[Millsy]

Thanks For the help.
Was able to get some work done on the arch tonight. I will have to start looking to find out where I can get insulation locally.

[psparr]

Search refractory suppliers on google. Might get lucky.

[rreeves]

I have a question for you guys that have built an oil tank arch and have good performance. How many inches from the grate of the fire box to the bottom of the pan and the best air gap below the pan after the fire box?
Thanks John

I have around 20" from the grate.
I built mine from a 1000 gallon fuel tank with a 32x50 pan on top.
I insulated it with perlite on the sides and put sand as a thermal mass below the pan.
It holds about 18 gallons and has a 30 gallon pre warmer with a float valve that constantly keeps between 2.5 and 3 inches in the pan.
I get a boil off rate between 15-18 gallons an hour.
I run all my sap through an RO to take the sugar content up around 6% prior to boiling which helps tremendously.




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[barnbc76]

Rreeves do you have any pictures of your rig i'd like to see that, never heard of anyone with a 1000 gal tank converted arch sounds pretty cool.

[Millsy]

I have insulated the shelf that is below the pan but I'm wondering if I need to insulate the area at the back of the tank that the stove pipe fits on to.
Thanks John