The one thing I love about MT is all the amazing ideas that people share. I especially love the home built section. So I propose a challenge to help spur on some creative ideas.
The Challenge: Cheapest fuel cost per unit of syrup. Be it USD per Gallon or CAD per Litre its all the same. The goal of everyone is to make it better, quicker, easier and cheaper.
So, for a couple of assumptions. Lets say a face cord of wood is 100$ CAD. That is about the going rate here to have it delivered cut and split. Maybe a bit higher. We will use that as a base line even if you cut wood off your own property because there is work and effort to cut your own wood and opportunity cost if you burn it and don't sell it.
I know a couple of big producers (10,000+ taps) here in the area that have their fuel cost down to roughly .50c/L. They have big RO systems and use fuel oil and super heated steam with the most advanced commercial evaporators available.
So the challenge is can we as back yarders get our costs down close to the big commercial syrup producers.
I'LL start.
This has been my quest since I started 20 years ago with 10 taps and a propane turkey boiler. It was costing me about 9$ per litre in just fuel alone. 12 years in and I made a big upgrade to a 2x8 D&G flat bottomed sectioned rig. It brought my cost down to about 4$ per litre burning cordwood. I would burn a cord a day and make about 25L/day.
I played around and made a system to burn used veggie oil under pressure in the arch. Still burn a bit of wood in the morning to get it lit and hot before the oil is introduced. It brought my cost down to about 1$/L. Last year I was low on both wood and oil so I made a RO system with a filter and 3x100GPD pods. I normally bring my sap up from about 2% to 6% which is good enough for me. Just the RO has saved me 2/3 of my total fuel. I should have done it years ago.
So by my latest calculations, my total cost per Litre of syrup is now down to .38c CAD. Which with current currency exchange is $1.14 USD per us gallon.
Would love any other crazy ideas to make it better.
Justin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxyp0GEzEcs