Efficiency Vermont Questions

[Mead Maple]

Hi all. Most of you guys are large enough to have decent sized equipment and produce a fair amount of syrup. For those of us who are on the border of more production but weighing how to get there, this would be an informative thread.

I stepped up from a 2x4 last year to a 2x8 burning oil. The rig works great, but after boiling some 8-10% concentrate (thank you to SMM) and seeing the massive savings in fuel consumption and time, I simply wont be able to boil raw sap next year. Biggest question I have for folks in VT is who here has utilized the efficiency Vermont rebates?

Id like to know a few things like:
How was the process
Any thoughts for application
Things youd do different if you could
Were the folks there helpful
Did they come do a site visit
Anything else you may have to offer

I definitely will be adding an RO for next season but would like to explore all my options before going forward. Unfortunately because of the size of my sugarhouse I won’t be able to have a dedicated RO room but have a fully insulated garage I would process in and move concentrate to the sugarhouse. So while I would love to utilize this program, I might end up needing to build one because of the size I am

Anyone have some thoughts to share on this topic?


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[ddociam]

I have two years experience with RO, but it is hands down the biggest efficiency boost I have found. I am going to finish in the neighborhood of 70 gallons this year. Finished around 20 the last two years. I completely Burt up my first batch this year. It was some beautiful amber also.
The question around RO is about how much sap do you want to process. Up to 50 gallons or maybe a bit more you could get by with the bucket size ro. I have no experience with that size. I know I want to increase production and efficiency so I went to a single post 4x40. My first year I chose to small of motor and pump. It worked but it was to slow for my goals. So I upgraded the motor and pump.
I also added a second unit a two post unit with a bigger motor and pump as well. 😀
Very happy. Camper this year. I can gather 500 gallons ro it and pump it into my head tank all in a day maybe if I feel like it evaporate it. What I ended up doing on smaller days was concentrate it and put it in refrigeration. Then evaporated one whole batch at one time. So I didn’t have to worry about concentrate sitting in my head tank and spoiling.
Hope that is some food for thought n


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[Polaris1]

Something to think about. This year I went to a 600 gph RO. My plan was to have the RO in a room off my shop as I didn't have room for a dedicated RO room in sugarhouse. I also switched homeowners Ins to farm Ins. My Ins agent told me my RO had to be in the same building of sugarhouse. They said if something happened with RO in shop Ins wouldn't pay. So needless to say I was lucky enough to have 5.5' overhang on both sides so I built a room for RO. Just ask your Ins company to be sure in your case.

[VTnewguy]

So we tried to use Efficiency Vermont when we bought our RO last year. They unfortunately couldn't/wouldn't provide any incentive because we run our operation off a generator. We bought the RO anyways and it has been the best investment we have ever done. Going to do our last boil today and in previous year's we would have been out of wood by now. I thought they were fair people, I understood the reasoning. The process wasn't the fastest and I can't imagine with the stay at home order it's any faster.

[Mead Maple]

As far as taps go I would be in the 300-400 range. I know an RO is by far the next step.
It sounds like based on the previous post it might need to be in the same structure as the arch. However, I am running off of electricity. I guess the worst they can tell me is no


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