Steam Evacuation Improvements

[Amber Gold]

I had problems this year with steam settling in the sugar house. They only way I could get it out was by leaving my door open to push the steam up. What improvements can I make to my sugar house, without making a larger cupola, to help with this problem?

I was going to install a hood w/ preheater to solve this problem, but am reconsidering that. I think the money would be better spent modifying my arch with an over fire blower system. It’s a comparable cost, but the evaporation rate is much better vs. the preheater.

Thanks

[Haynes Forest Products]

Using the principals of a forced air heating system you cant move air into a space without air leaving that space. moving air out of a space is hard without bringing in makeup air. Now the problem with steam is its heavey and when you bring in cold outside air it agitates it and causes it to sink. Is it possible to bring in the makeup air from the sugar house so its warmer. I have a friend that tried the fans and ended up building the coupla down closer to the evap. He used the thin masonite and made a hood just like the ones over grills in resturants it hangs down about 24" shy of the top of the evap. the pans are 3x10 and the hood is about 5x12 what it does is start the convection heat rising and not swerling around the room. about $100.00 in meterials

[RileySugarbush]

I second that. What is needed is a chimney for the steam, meaning a relatively narrow tube, maybe the size of your pan, as long as is practical. One it starts drawing, meaning everything is heated up, it should suck the vapor up fine. You probably don't need to bring it down quite that far, as long as it acts like a chimney. You could experiment with some plastic sheet held in that shape to see if it works.

[Amber Gold]

So if I build a plywood box around my pan off the collar ties it should help draw the steam up? Maybe have the box a four feet above the pan. The evap. is a few feet off-center from the cupola. Is that fine or do I need to channel it all the way up?

[Justin Turco]

Josh, I have the same problem in my sugarhouse. I really believe it's because the sugarhouse is too tight. I wish I could remember where I just read about that....I saw it somewhere. Ya know, I think it was in a link you put on a week or two ago regarding bricking up an arch. They talked about having the sugarhouse insulated and how it could cause the steam to not escape well.

Anyway, another thought, and I looks nice when your done. A guy near me has a nice plexiglass shroud that he has built over his flue pan. If I remember right he has a pipe in the top which takes the steam out of the building.

What is this "overfire blower" you mentioned?

Justin

[KenWP]

The hood would be like the hood in a commercial kitchen so it gathers the steam and then channels it upward. At the top you could even then put a small fan to suck the steam out of the sugar cabin.
Some sugar houses have openings under the eaves to allow air into the inside to replace the steam and air rising out the top of the building.

[Amber Gold]

Over fire blower like the intenso-fire arch. Much larger evaporation rate increases for a comparable cost to a hood w/ preheater. I think better money spent.

It's not a tight building now and all the eaves are left open so there should be plenty of air flow with the door closed.

That's what I was thinking with the plywood hood is that it'd be similiar to a restaurant hood. wasnt' sure if I'd actually have to pipe it up or not.

[Haynes Forest Products]

The problem with the fan is if you take a 3x10 evap and its running at full steam thats about 30 Cubic Feet every 3 seconds of heavy water laden air and you try and suck that out of the building with a small 30 CFM fan its going to slow down the steam/air. Look at the fans on the top of your local fast food resturant and the noise they make they are cranking and that air they are moving is hot LIGHT SMOKE.

Now let me stick my neck out and say if you had a 2x3 or 3x7 flue pan and you set a FLAT piece of sheet metal on top of the flue pan and put a 12" stack out the top you would have a steam hood that would work as well as most hoods.

[RileySugarbush]

Haynes,

That would work at getting the vapor out, but it would condense and drip back in to the pan. Hoods need to be sloped to get the condensate out to the edge troughs for collection. It's bad enough evaporating the water once!

[Haynes Forest Products]

I disagree The metal gets very hot and does not cause condensation and Im speaking from experiance my hood is made of light weight aluminum and its very low profile. I get zero condensate on the inside. My hood gets so hot that when I wipe the outside with a damp cleaning rag during operation it steams and evaporates. My steam pipe also remains very hot and has very little condensate that forms I dont have a catch gutter around it.
The bigger the steam hood the cooler the steam gets and condensates. the hood should be as small as possibe to keep the steam hot and moving. I know we need room for equipment but the smaller the better. I have a drip channel around the entire hood and piping down to buckets. My hood is sloped and I get no water dripping out of the hood.

[RileySugarbush]

Good point! I'm going to look more closely inside of my hood, which is kind of steep. It might make a difference how warm it is in the sugarhouse, too.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I understand the desire for big and shinney and the need for the preheater. My hood over my 3 x 7 flue pan was made fron a 48 x 96 sheet of alum. so its not all that high so it was cheap to build and easy to construct.