To insulate or not

[maple flats]

I rarely found the need for an insulated sugarhouse, that is until the last 10 days or so. I ran short on packed syrup and needed to put more up. The last syrup I packed in mid Jan. was bourbon barrel aged syrup and I failed to wash (because the temps had fallen so I could not pump water) the finisher, filter aid mixing tank, the hoses to the filter press, the filter press and the water jacketed bottler. I tried 2x in the last week to get water to my tankless heater, but the supply line is frozen. That line is 1" maple tubing, then it tees off using a SS T, and a braid reinforced 3/4" line feeds the diaphragm pump which pumps water to the cold water outlet, and thru the tankless water heater. It was too cold and I could not get the water (150 gal hauled from home) to flow thru the pump and beyond. I ended up having to dump the 150 gal, so it wouldn't freeze in the tank on my truck.
If my sugarhouse was insulated and heated I could have washed the equipment and bottled more syrup. At this point it looks like I may be able to bottle a week from today, as of now, 37F is forecast, time will tell.
Being 74 now (age not degrees) and t5hinking at best I might not do syrup more than maybe 4-6 more years, I won't likely insulate. If I was 20 years younger I certainly would, but only run the heat when needed. As of now, I only heat a very small RO room, using a propane wall furnace that is only 8000BTU.
I've been doing syrup since 2003, and this is the first time I've run out of syrup to sell, but still had a barrel full I could bottle, but couldn't get it done. That was caused by a few things happening all at the same time. Covid caused my sales to essentially double, then I had a big norder from a regular customer , who bought 20 half gal jugs worth, then a wholesale order (new customer) came in wanting more than I had packed, mostly in smaller sizes. If finally pulled some from my only local retail outlet and got enough of the wholesale order filled to satisfy the customer (and without emptying that retail outlet).
A heated sugarhouse would have prevented this, first I would have cleaned right after I finished bottling the bourbon barrel aged syrup, and just a quick rinse would have done it, or I could have washed on the 2 days I tried without success.

[Ghs57]

I’m expanding my shack now and am planning to insulate. The old section has an inch and a half foam in the roof only. Eventually, the building will be much better insulated, mainly because I want to use it year round and will have running water. Sap storage will remain outside on the northern side. I poured a concrete floor with radiant heat under the new section and in the old section last summer/fall. No more dirt floor! Never doing that again. It won’t be completely finished for this season, but hopefully by next fall.

[TapTapTap]

I can see the desire to have an insulated space but it seems hard to justify to the evaporator room. The kitchen - yes. And if I had to do it again, I would expand my kitchen room. I have a small but oversized hotdawg in the kitchen. The room has fiberglass insulation in the walls and Foamular 250 around the foundation. I keep the thermostat at 50 deg unless I'm working in there, or came in to warm up. I don't see the benefit of radiant heat over a unit heater but it should work fine.

[ecp]

If I was to go new I would insolate the sugarhouse and heat it. There is to much in there to make it feasible now (and why to much money to build a new sugarhouse) but living in northern Vermont some of those nights boiling until 2 and 3 a.m. would certainly be much more pleasant if I didn't have to wear long johns and layer up with jackets because oil rigs do not put off heat very well.

visitors would also be more comfortable if it was not 10 or 20 degrees in there when they stopped by.

If you have the money spray foam would be a great option for sealing it up and holding heat in, but it not any of the other options would be better than nothing at all in my opinion. just my 2 cents.

[Ghs57]

I can see the desire to have an insulated space but it seems hard to justify to the evaporator room. The kitchen - yes. And if I had to do it again, I would expand my kitchen room. I have a small but oversized hotdawg in the kitchen. The room has fiberglass insulation in the walls and Foamular 250 around the foundation. I keep the thermostat at 50 deg unless I'm working in there, or came in to warm up. I don't see the benefit of radiant heat over a unit heater but it should work fine.

If you have had a radiant heated slab, you would know the difference. It didn’t cost that much to run the tubing, you can’t add it later and this will be used year round (beer, cider and winemaking). It’s aspirational, as I am heating with a old diy wood stove for now. I will not be using fiberglass insulation as this is a timber framed building, so no place to put it, and I'm not completely sold on iso foam. I’ve had problems with tunneling carpenter ants. They are currently in the foam in the old section. Looking at Rockwool boards.

I'll be adding some pictures in my thread in the New York forum for those interested.

[TapTapTap]

If you have had a radiant heated slab, you would know the difference. It didn’t cost that much to run the tubing, you can’t add it later and this will be used year round (beer, cider and winemaking). It’s aspirational, as I am heating with a old diy wood stove for now. I will not be using fiberglass insulation as this is a timber framed building, so no place to put it, and I'm not completely sold on iso foam. I’ve had problems with tunneling carpenter ants. They are currently in the foam in the old section. Looking at Rockwool boards.

Don't get me wrong, I can see the appeal of a heated evaporator room. I wouldn't be able to justify it. Of course I've got an 8-ft-long by 5-ft wide cupola that does a very effective job of sucking out the steam - and with it quite a bit of heat. In your case, the year round use provides further justification.

And you're chatting with someone that has a radiant slab in the chicken coop! My garage is radiant heated by my outdoor wood-fired boiler. It was an easy decision to do the same for the chickens with a circuit off from the garage feed.

[TapTapTap]

..because oil rigs do not put off heat very well.

There are some cold days, even with our wood-fired evaporator. It helps a little more since we need to handle the wood and open the firebox every 10 minutes. Like a said in my other post, we have a large cupola that is intentionally drafty.

[minehart gap]

I have the tubing in the floor for radiant floor heat but a hot dawg heater came along at a really good price before a hot water supply for the floor.

To insulate or not to insulate? Insulate. It makes life a lot nicer during the season and for guests. Comfortable guests are not in a hurry to leave so they buy more syrup.

[Ghs57]

Don't get me wrong, I can see the appeal of a heated evaporator room. I wouldn't be able to justify it. Of course I've got an 8-ft-long by 5-ft wide cupola that does a very effective job of sucking out the steam - and with it quite a bit of heat. In your case, the year round use provides further justification.

And you're chatting with someone that has a radiant slab in the chicken coop! My garage is radiant heated by my outdoor wood-fired boiler. It was an easy decision to do the same for the chickens with a circuit off from the garage feed.

Wow, my apologies (I had friendly intent). Wish I had an outside boiler - running 2 wood stoves and a pellet stove, and sometimes an evaporator.

[TapTapTap]

Wow, my apologies (I had friendly intent). Wish I had an outside boiler - running 2 wood stoves and a pellet stove, and sometimes an evaporator.

No offense taken here. Your response prompted me to check my previous post and I realized that I wasn't as clear as I should have been that an insulated/heated evaporator room would be very nice. But, that it wouldn't be very practical for my situation.