Auto draw off for autistic son

[The Sweet Spot]

I am making an auto draw off for the upcoming season and have a couple of ideas. This will be the first year with my son running the evaporator alone and he is autistic. He is more than capable of being safe and grew up with me boiling sap every year, however he does lose concentration sometimes. Forgeting to add wood and the boil slows down, forget to draw off and unfortunate things can happen. Our sap shack is 100% off the grid with a generator a battery bank and an inverter. There are times when we do not have power and if the solenoid valve is normally closed and before the 1/4 turn valve, we would not be able to draw off. I am considering using a Y or a T with a 1" manual valve on one side and a 1/2" solenoid valve on the other with a 1/4 " copper tubing to reduce the flow of the draw-off instead of another 1/4 turn valve. My reasoning is that would prevent any accident opening the valve allowing the auto draw off to drain the pans too quickly, and if something goes wrong with the power we still have a valve that is still operational. Any advice or experience on this subject is appreciated.

[Bricklayer]

That’s exactly the setup I used with my auto draw before I switched to the belimo actuator and butterfly valve. I had a main shutoff valve right at the pan so I could take the valve assembly off and clean it or service it without having to drain the pan.
Then a T with a 90 on each. One side had the auto draw off valve and the other had a stainless balll valve that could be used as an oh crap valve.
We had to use it a couple times when the valve plugged or malfunctioned during long boils and heavy nitre build up.
Got to the point where I would take the whole valve assemble apart and soak it over night in vinegar. That’s what’s nice about having the valve at the pan.
I also had a valve on the auto draw side that was past the auto valve. I would use it to throttle the flow after the valve. This works better than throttling it at the pan valve. Keeps the auto valve wet and full all the time and keeps the crap from building up in it.
I’d post a pic but I can’t on this site. Smoky lake sells a kit that has all the hardware and plumbing in it to do a similar setup.
You might be able to look on their website for an idea on how to set it up.