room size needed?

[maple flats]

I will be looking for a 250-500 gph RO before 2011. Really want about 300 gal/hr size. My question, I am now drawing addition plans for the sugarhouse. What size insulated room will I need. My plans are to have an addition with good insulation entirely but containing a better insulated RO room and the other side of one partition will be a bathroom, with composting toilet. A heater would be set to heat both rooms all the time but opening the RO room door will be then heating the rest of the addition. Heat will be propane that can run with no electricity. Then if needed a fan can move heat to the rest. My guess is to make the addition 14x20. The bath would take about 3.5x6?, RO room, 5x6? and the rest would be an L shaped kitchen, with a counter along the 20' wall and across the end wall of 14'. I am limited going any wider than 14' wide and over 20' long would require a much less simple roofline. Does this sound do-able? The floor would all be concrete with drains and the sink would be just outside the RO room. For that size RO am I too tight?

[maplwrks]

Dave--I think you are going a little small in the RO dept---I think you should really look at a 600 gph unit, but I'll get back to that. I have an expanded 600, and it was getting a little cramped in the 8x8 room I had it in. Once you put the RO in and a wash tank, I think you would find it real tight having to change filters and to open and close valves in the room you propose to build.
RO rooms are like garages, you think they are huge when you're building them, but fill up fast!!

Back to the RO size--with the 900 taps you have, you could RO directly to the feed tank and probably (on most nights) be done in 1 1/2- 2 hours, depending on sap run. I think you would need to run that smaller RO a long time before you could boil. Just food for thought....

[maple flats]

My eventual plans are to expand to about 1600-2000 taps on vac. I hope to concentrate to about 8 or 10% and boil, still using my 3x8 evap. Do you see this as going too small on the RO. I like to boil at 55-60 gph on this rig even if it can go faster. The was thinking if 2%, 250gph leaves 50 gal conc from 300 gal in and it looks like a balance to me. Is this thinking flawed?

[maplwrks]

If you were to have 1600 taps, a 600 would be good fit for you.

Think of it this way--If you have 1600 taps and they run 1600 gallons of sap, your RO can process that sap in 2 1/2 hours and to 8%. Then you start the RO and evaporator at the same time.You could set your RO to 1 gpm on the concentrate side and when the RO shuts off, you're done boiling.

[maple flats]

That was my thinking too, likely start RO about an hour earlier but with a 300 gph and 5 hrs. Lower % as needed to keep up with evap needs. Experience would dictate if any changes were needed

[acers]

a good place to look for USED and in good condition would be at bascom maple products http://www.bascommaple.com/

[sapman]

Dave, I bought a used 500gph RO a couple years ago. That year, I had 700 taps out. It was the perfect size for that. Last year I had 1200+, with low sugar, and my RO was already too small. It usually actually does anywhere from 300 to 480 gph for me.

Tim

[leavralph]

I built a 10X14 room for my RO 300gph gives a little extra room for some storage but not a lot. I also have a 3X8 evaporator wish I had a 600gph. I have to start the RO about 1 1/2 hr a head of boiling and can still catch up to it running 10% which I have found to prefer.

[Russell Lampron]

Dave I have a 150gph RO and matched the output of that to my 2x6 evaporator when I bought it. Now that the membrane has aged and the evaporator has been tweeked to get more gph out of it I am thinking that a 300gph RO would be too small for me. A 600gph RO would be overkill right now but I would soon grow into it. I have just over 500 taps now and plan to do 1200 to 1300 in the future, maybe more. Go with the 600gph RO if you can. You won't be sorry.

The 3.5 x6 room will be too small once you get the RO in there. Mine is 5x6 and I have barely enough room to move in it. The plumbing and wash tank take up alot of room. It sounds like your addition will be big enough to make some floor plan changes though.

[brookledge]

If you build it bigger you can put in other things like a DE filter. Run your raw sap through a DE filter before the RO and it will help the RO run better. I'd say a minumum of 8X8 or about that size. I built one that is rectangle but about 12X5.5.
Also it depends on what brand of RO you get as to whether you need to have room for a seperate wash tank. CDL incorporates the wash tank into the RO so there is no need for additional space for a wash tank. I'm not sure about other manufactuers but it is worth doing your homework on the RO you intend on buying and then building the room after you know what Ro you have.
Also I would recommend that you put in a cold air inlet ventilation system. Put it where cold air from the outside can be blown on the high pressure motors. I know some will say they are designed to run with out cool air on them but keeping a 7.5 or 10 hp electric motor as cool as possible is a good investment to get more years out of it before it needs replacing.
Good luck
Keith

[sapman]

My Airablo (Sprintech or D&G) also has the wash tank built into it, and the membrane is also part of the entire movable unit.

Tim

[maplwrks]

I think Lapierre is the only RO that has a wash tank that is remotely mounted.