Who is using natural gas

[Forrest hunters]

I have been thinking about how easy it would be to run natural gas evaporator but maybe it's not what I think. I have a Smoky Lake Silver Plate 2x6 with drop flues. What would it take to convert to gas and how much gas would it use.

My home heating bill was 145CCF last month and only $112.00. Only paying about $.77/CCF.

Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

[mellondome]

I converted my wood leader arch to ng couple years ago. 2x6 raised flue. You will need to have burners in the range of 700k btu .
It is great. No wood mess.. instant heat and instant off. No need to hold sap for after the fire is out. On the first boil this year, went from cold pans to full boil ( front and back) in under 2 min.
For cost, use an ro. Im just under a 1 dollar per gal of syrup but i RO to 18%.

[Ntatar]

Can you post picks, links, or videos? I'm in an area where wood is prohibitively expensive as a fuel source so my best bet is natural gas which I can tap into from the house.

[Forrest hunters]

Mellondome,

What did it take to convert to gas from wood? Burners, blocking off part of the firebox, cutting holes in the door, anything?

Thanks,

[DaveB]

This kind of intrigues me as well. Would something like this burner work if places in the firebox?

https://www.glaciertanks.com/jet-and-air-burners-jb-88-nat.html

How much gas/propane do you use in a season?

[mellondome]

Mellondome,

What did it take to convert to gas from wood? Burners, blocking off part of the firebox, cutting holes in the door, anything?

Thanks,I removed the doors and bolted on a solid plate to the front with holes for my burners to "blow" into. I also created a wall about 12" inside the firebox to deflecr the flame upwards and then lined the firebox with ceramic blanket.

[mellondome]

Pics of my burners. Each is fed with a 1" pipe off of a 2" manifold/supply line. I also put an auto draft damper on my stack to stabilize the draft, same as you should in an oil rig.
1851718518

[mellondome]

This kind of intrigues me as well. Would something like this burner work if places in the firebox?

https://www.glaciertanks.com/jet-and-air-burners-jb-88-nat.html

How much gas/propane do you use in a season?Probably not very effecient in an arch. These will require a lot of air for the burn. You wont be able to close them inside the arch and not sure how they will handle the heat being held in around them. But i think you can get them pretty cheap. Give them a try and let us know how they work.

[DaveB]

Probably not very effecient in an arch. These will require a lot of air for the burn. You wont be able to close them inside the arch and not sure how they will handle the heat being held in around them. But i think you can get them pretty cheap. Give them a try and let us know how they work.

If I can part with the money I might give it a try. It might be good if I only have a few hours to boil. I was thinking that I could leave the draft door open and place the burner on the grates. It should be able to draft enough air from below I would think. The only problem is how to run the gas line.

Your setup is totally different from what I was thinking. It looks like a built in version of the blow torch I use to start the fire.

Thanks for your thoughts!

[Potters3]

Carlin also makes a gas burner. Looks just like there oil burners

[Forrest hunters]

Can anyone tell me if my numbers are correct of not. I have the smokey lake 2x6 drop flue and thinking about a carlin 301 burner at 19/32" or 5/8" orifice for 700,000+ btu. Does that sound right? I believe at 700,000 btu I would burn around 700cfh. I paid $98 per 125ccf last month on my gas bill. At that rate of saying $1 per ccf I would spend about $7 per hour to run a Carlin 301.. If I collect 3000 gallons per year and boil without RO at 50 to 60gph I would spend 350 to 420 per year on gas.

Thoughts? Are my numbers correct?

[upsmapleman]

I think you may be close. I have a 3 x 12 with 2, 601 carlins strapped to the front giving me 2.3 millon btus. If your sap is 2% you would make around 70 gallon give or take. $420 divided by 70 would give you a cost of $6 per gallon. Figure extras such as washing, finishing off back pan, end of season sap below 2% and could average out to more. You also may need a bigger meter, you would need to check with you gas company. For me a commerical meter is more and I pay a higher rate for gas.

[Tin_Man]

I was considering converting my air tight HE 2' x 6' evaporator to natural gas last year. Natural gas makes sense for me as my house is run on gas. Installing a Carlin burner in the arch door isn't an issue and seems relatively simple. My problem came with the gas company. I have a residence not a business. The gas company provides a residential line, meter & regulator for free. I contacted the gas company regarding gas flow with the existing residential meter. The gas company came over last summer to see if the residential meter & regulator had sufficient flow for the Carlin burner, furnace, water heater & clothes dryer. The gas company tech was very friendly and knowledgeable plus makes syrup himself, he said that with my house gas requirements the additional flow of the Carlin burner would require a commercial high flow gas meter. He explained that the residential gas line, meter and regulator wouldn't handle the addition of the Carlin burner, he said I would have problems with the furnace & water heater not working correctly plus I wouldn't be happy with the performance of the Carlin burner, he explained the regulator wouldn't handle the high flow rate. He said he could install a commercial high flow meter & regulator but I would be charged for the meter, regulator and labor plus I would have to switch from residential service to commercial and have a larger gas line installed from the road to the meter which I would be responsible to pay the gas company to do. After I looked at the cost for everything I told the gas company to cancel and I'd stick with the residential service. The cost for commercial gas service to my residence was too high to justify it for only 2 months, I would be paying a commercial rate every month of the year. I don't remember the flow rates and costs but I do remember it was nuts for 2 months of boiling. I stuck with wood although I have to pay $170 per cord plus load it into my truck and unload it, it's a heck of a lot cheaper than commercial gas service.

I started out making syrup years ago with a 18" x 36" flat pan using high pressure high output propane tube burners with a custom gas manifold in a homemade arch. Worked great, no complaints, super easy to start boiling whenever I wanted to, no shut down problems. Wish I was able to use natural gas or propane with my new 2'x6' but it isn't cost effective, at least for someone that's not commercial.

[DRoseum]

I am very small scale (36 taps) and use natural gas. I used 3 18"x6" stainless U-burners (by Hearth Product Controls) on a 1" manifold with dante ng-air mixers to get a pure blue flame. The firebox is lined completely with firebrick with exhaust on one side. It worked great for the 21"x30" pan that I have. I boiled 400 gallons of sap on it and the gas bill wasn't much higher than the years before I built this. Pictures below:
https://www.sugartree.run/2019/03/custom-hobby-maple-syrup-evaporator.html