Wood consumption ?

[smokeyamber]

So I run a 2x5 arch with a blower and have never really tracked my wood consumption. Mostly cause I was burning anything , pallets, scrap , dead trees cut while boiling, old furniture :lol: etc... This year it looks like I will be slightly ahead of the curve on wood. Is there any rule of thumb for how much pine per gallon of syrup produced ? I don't burn the good stuff so it is all pine.

I would love to have enough wood on hand BEFORE I start boiling:cool:, but that like saying everything else will be ready... NOT LIKELY :lol:

[psparr]

Not sure on pine, but a rule of thumb is 1 cord per 20 gallon of syrup

[Biz]

I have always burned mostly pine or spruce, and it goes alarmingly fast. I burned about 3 cords last year for 24 gallons of syrup, about 75% softwood. Using a 18x48" CDL with drop flues. Depends a lot on your evaporator. On my half pint, I went through at least a cord of softwood per 5 gallons of syrup.

Dave

[boondocker]

I burned 6 cord of mixed last year on a 30X8 natural draft and made 225 gallons. This season I have 6.5 cord of all soft wood and added a blower...... Something is telling me I don't have enough this year.

[WI Sugarpop]

Two years ago we made 68 gal with 2 cord of construction scraps. We fill up banana boxes with SPF 2x4s and 6s or any other wood that would be tossed. We have AOF and AUF.

[maple flats]

A lot depends on the rig. A small one is less efficient than a big one. On real small you may only get 12-14 gal per full cord of hardwood, properly seasoned, on a large one you might get 20-25 gal/cord. Get more whenever you have the chance. I ran out back in 2006 and had to cut a medium sized Ash tree to finish, since then I've kept from 1.5 to 3 years ahead, vowing to never run out again. In 2012 I used my RO and this year I may finally finish off the wood I had split and stacked to start the 2012 season, if we have a nice long season. An RO saves loads of wood. I concentrate to 10-14% most of the time, instead of boiling 1.9-2.3% sap. That made a huge difference.

[smokeyamber]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, sound like I will be splitting some more pine in the coming weeks, I have around a cord and a 1/2 at this point. My rig is a flat pan and my boi rate isn't very impressive. Sounds like long term plas for an RO will save my back from all the wood cutting and hauling :lol:

[mainebackswoodssyrup]

I'd have 3 cord ready to go. We get about 12 GPH on our 2x5 flat pan, made 30 gallons last year and burned around 2.5 cord of good hardwood.

[adk1]

Unless you have an r o!��

[motowbrowne]

When we cooked on flat pans we got about 10 gallons per cord.

[maple marc]

I usually get about 15 gallons of syrup from a cord of hardwood. That's on a stock Leader WSE 2x6.

[Sugarmaker]

So you have 70 taps. If you tap and collect and boil all you can. And they are good trees , you should make about 18 -20 gallons of syrup. I would have at least a cord and half ready and dry. (4 x 4 x 8 cords). You will burn extra just for the start up each time.
Regards,
Chris

[Waynehere]

I have a 2x6, and with 2% sugar, I am getting about 24 gal per full cord. That is with AUF and AOF. I believe your sugar content will also play a factor on how much syrup/cord.

[Joe Hillmann]

I think I average around 1/2 face cord of pine per gallon of finished syrup.

[Mikemartin274]

This thread is talking of full cords of wood right? If so I'm running very inefficient I've already burned one face cord for 4 falling of Syrup

[motowbrowne]

This thread is talking of full cords of wood right? If so I'm running very inefficient I've already burned one face cord for 4 falling of Syrup

If you're running flat pans, a face cord (I'm assuming 1/3 of a full cord) for 4 gallons is about right. When we had flat pans we made 10 gallons per full cord of mixed slab wood. When we switched to our 2x10 we made 25 gallons per cord of mostly softwood. I haven't done any math with my new rig, but I'd bet it's about the same.

[Ghs57]

I'm at about 1 cord hardwood (some pine in there too) to 20+ gals. I guess thats not too bad in comparison.

[maple maniac65]

45 to 50 gallons of syrup to a cord of wood

[S.S.S]

A cord of dry elm cut and split and using basswood slabs to 225-250 gals of syrup using between 20-23% concentrate.

[wnybassman]

Close enough to the end to figure it out for my 18x60. 3 cord even to make 48ish gallons

[Vtmbz]

Im burning only pine, spruce and hemlock with an occassional poplar thrown in. i just measured 120 cu ft ( so about a cord) and yielded 14 gallons on my dropped flue 2x4. The old frenchmen around me say one cord of good dry softwoood will get 15 gallons or more syrup. I agree that starting uses more wood than running, so burn long when you can!

[georgelineman]

There is a very good chart for this in the book Sugarhouse Design. It gives Species of wood, gallons expected per cord and at what % sap and efficiency of burning.
george

[Ghs57]

https://www.uvm.edu/~uvmaple/sugarhousedesign.pdf

See page 5

[wnybassman]

Close enough to the end to figure it out for my 18x60. 3 cord even to make 48ish gallons

Forgot to mention I burn half black locust and half pine

[Trapper2]

When we cooked on flat pans we got about 10 gallons per cord.
That's sounds about right.

[Ryan Mahar]

RO one pass to 8% , 30x10 leader revolution pans, max flu and enhanced steam away results in us making 135 gallons of syrup for every cord of wood. Or ~3/4 of a cord to make 100 gallons of syrup. Hardwood only for our evaporator, soft wood does not last very long .......

[abbott]

RO one pass to 8% , 30x10 leader revolution pans, max flu and enhanced steam away results in us making 135 gallons of syrup for every cord of wood. Or ~3/4 of a cord to make 100 gallons of syrup. Hardwood only for our evaporator, soft wood does not last very long .......

By my math, that's about 1450 gallons of concentrate per cord (which would mean 36 gallons of syrup a cord using raw sap at a 40:1 ratio.) Which actually seems low, considering the max flue and enhanced steamaway. I'm just running the numbers here because I'm looking to get more efficient in my gallons of syrup per cord and wondering what evaporator I should go with. It seems like if I can do 1000 gallons of sap a cord with my non-airtight, poorly insulated, standard evap. with no preheater, a Vortex with max flue and steamaway should at least double that. Thoughts, anyone?

[Ryan Mahar]

Not sure if everything I say or suggest here is 100% accurate, but pretty sure that each evaporator will generally move the same amount of liquid through the system regardless of its sugar content. Obviously it changes some with sap quality etc...but my evaporator moves liquid at ~ 165 gallons per hour. In comparison our 2x6 use to move 55 gallons per hour. Whether it is 2% sap or 12% sap. If we are starting at 8% after RO and then through our system, it still is 165 gallons per hour. However, because we are starting with concentrated sap, then using enhanced steam way which increases concentrate 50% (bringing 8% to 12%) and then faster evaporation rate with max flues etc... we will process the sap much quicker or efficient. The ratio at the beginning of the day remains 40:1 with ideal conditions etc....and so taking the RO out of the equation and all the efficiency of our evaporator , yes you would be making much less syrup per cord......At the end of the day we should all be making about the same amount of syrup, starting with the same amount of sap. It's the speed of processing is where the enormous savings are noted in both production time and overall costs.......on our 2x6 we use to burn up 4-5 cords to make a 100 gallons, now we only 3/4 of a cord.....that's what we are talking about here right?? good conversation, and I love learning more and am fine with being corrected about my 'figures' so continue on!!!

[ennismaple]

Ryan - Yes, the evaporator will boil off the same amount of water per hour. The difference is how much syrup you are drawing off. Our rig gets around 190 GPH boiling raw sap. It's closer to 210 GPH boiling concentrate that's 12% or better because of how much liquid we draw off the end of it.

This year we're averaging just over 180 USG per chord of wood burned. We burn mostly maple and a bit of red oak but we will throw in some softwood that was either in the way or fell and needed to be cleaned up.

[Ryan Mahar]

Yes, I totally agree. And end of season we will be drawing off LESS syrup of course as increase niter etc affect draw rate.....but still the evaporation rate is based on the efficiency of the new evaporators, air tight systems, ROing etc... which results in markedly less boiling time and less wood consumption which I believe it what started this thread was the question on how much wood folks were burning through to make syrup.. Thanks.

[abbott]

Not sure if everything I say or suggest here is 100% accurate, but pretty sure that each evaporator will generally move the same amount of liquid through the system regardless of its sugar content. Obviously it changes some with sap quality etc...but my evaporator moves liquid at ~ 165 gallons per hour. In comparison our 2x6 use to move 55 gallons per hour. Whether it is 2% sap or 12% sap. If we are starting at 8% after RO and then through our system, it still is 165 gallons per hour. However, because we are starting with concentrated sap, then using enhanced steam way which increases concentrate 50% (bringing 8% to 12%) and then faster evaporation rate with max flues etc... we will process the sap much quicker or efficient. The ratio at the beginning of the day remains 40:1 with ideal conditions etc....and so taking the RO out of the equation and all the efficiency of our evaporator , yes you would be making much less syrup per cord......At the end of the day we should all be making about the same amount of syrup, starting with the same amount of sap. It's the speed of processing is where the enormous savings are noted in both production time and overall costs.......on our 2x6 we use to burn up 4-5 cords to make a 100 gallons, now we only 3/4 of a cord.....that's what we are talking about here right?? good conversation, and I love learning more and am fine with being corrected about my 'figures' so continue on!!!

I'm just trying to take the RO out of the equation by figuring how many gallons of liquid go through the rig an hour. Ignore my comment about how much syrup you would make with raw sap. I'm currently processing about 950-1000 gallons of sap a cord with my rig and I want to improve on that. I'm figuring you're processing about 1450 gallons/cord on your rig. Obviously much better, but I was assuming the enhanced steamaway alone could get you to that number, an even more (maybe as much as 2000 gallons a cord.) But I obviously don't know much of anything about it.

What I really want to know is how many gallons of sap/concentrate per cord is achievable with all of the modern equipment, just in the boiling part of the operation. Will the dealers have those numbers if I ask what their rigs are rated for?

[Sunday Rock Maple]

I'm just trying to take the RO out of the equation by figuring how many gallons of liquid go through the rig an hour. Ignore my comment about how much syrup you would make with raw sap. I'm currently processing about 950-1000 gallons of sap a cord with my rig and I want to improve on that. I'm figuring you're processing about 1450 gallons/cord on your rig. Obviously much better, but I was assuming the enhanced steamaway alone could get you to that number, an even more (maybe as much as 2000 gallons a cord.) But I obviously don't know much of anything about it.

What I really want to know is how many gallons of sap/concentrate per cord is achievable with all of the modern equipment, just in the boiling part of the operation. Will the dealers have those numbers if I ask what their rigs are rated for?

Leader has a steamaway table in their catalog that may help. Also Sunrise lists rates on their website

[abbott]

Leader has a steamaway table in their catalog that may help. Also Sunrise lists rates on their website

I can't find them. Maybe you're referring to gallon per hour tables? I'm looking for gallon per cord numbers.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Right, but if you know the wood consumption rate for one size evaporator that boils "X" gallons per hour. You might be able to estimate the wood consumption rate for the same manufacturers bigger unit boiling "1.5X" gallons per hour. This assumes linearity, but it might be close enough.

[Ryan Mahar]

Not sure about other dealers, but Leader will have near exact figures for you for any size rig, with SA or not, with max flues or not etc......... and there numbers for me were spot on so that would be a good reference. I use David Butler as my consultant for most all questions.....

[Ryan Mahar]

Just found some old numbers when first looking at buying our new evaporator. For my 30" X 10', evap rate for raw sap is 140 gallons per hour, with the enhanced SA it is 220 Gallons per hour.......

[ennismaple]

What I really want to know is how many gallons of sap/concentrate per cord is achievable with all of the modern equipment, just in the boiling part of the operation. Will the dealers have those numbers if I ask what their rigs are rated for?

Gallons per chord is highly variable - basswood and cedar won't give you nearly the same BTU's/chord as maple and oak.

Burning mostly maple and oak with a bit of softwood mixed in I estimate we're at about 1300 gallons evaporated per chord, or about 26.5 gallons per square foot per chord.

[abbott]

Gallons per chord is highly variable - basswood and cedar won't give you nearly the same BTU's/chord as maple and oak.

Burning mostly maple and oak with a bit of softwood mixed in I estimate we're at about 1300 gallons evaporated per chord, or about 26.5 gallons per square foot per chord.

Gallons per hour is also highly variable. But everyone takes a stab at what that might be. Just sayin...

Thanks for the estimation for your rig, though. Is that for the Force 5, but with no preaheater or steamaway?

[ennismaple]

Gallons per hour is also highly variable. But everyone takes a stab at what that might be. Just sayin...

Thanks for the estimation for your rig, though. Is that for the Force 5, but with no preaheater or steamaway?

We have a preheater but no steamaway.