Hi everyone,
We are looking for some non salesman to give us some honest input on our situation. We have a 2x6 Ailger oil fired with a Lapierre 2 membrane RO. We have expanded to about 1500 taps, and last year this set up worked pretty well, didn't spend any late nights in the sugarhouse, like we did before the RO even with fewer taps. We are adding a vac this year, and will be adding some more taps in the coming years. So we are trying to figure out where is the best place to gain efficiency for the cost. We have considered going to a larger evap., but the problem with that comes when we have a small run. Last year, there were runs when we barely had enough sap to put through the RO and start boiling. Some say just don't concentrate as much, but that is not the cost effective payback we are looking for out of the RO. I know last year wasn't the greatest year, but there will be more of those, and I know the vac will pull more sap, which should give us enough sap on those small runs to boil. But when we get a large run, we will be spending a lot of hours in the sugarhouse if we don't improve efficiency.
We are thinking that making this set up work better, may be our best bet for now. Our question is, where is the money best spent?
We are trying to weigh the cost/benefits of adding membranes, or adding a piggyback or steamaway, or is there any other options out there? The piggyback ads say they make you 60% - 75% more efficient, but how does that translate in our situation. I have read posts that say efficiency is greatly lost on a smaller evap. like ours. And of course they are not cheap, but I guess there is no annual maintenance costs, but apparently we may not gain much either for our investment.
Any input would be appreciated.