Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[DrTimPerkins]

...on the electric releaser I also watch the operations with a Sense electrical monitor in my breaker box.

Hi Ken,

I've been thinking of adding the Sense monitor to our sugarhouse panel. Would like to hear any feedback you have about it. Need to upgrade the sugarhouse service next summer, so will consider adding it then.

[sapmaple]

Tim I assume you have a 200 amp service What are you upgrading it to?

I'm thinking I may have to do as well tripped my service breaker once when everything was running full bore

[TapTapTap]

Hi Ken,

I've been thinking of adding the Sense monitor to our sugarhouse panel. Would like to hear any feedback you have about it. Need to upgrade the sugarhouse service next summer, so will consider adding it then.

Dr. Tim:

We built a new house in 2017/18 - are you ever really done? We've got heat pumps and lots of power consuming devices and appliances. After a couple of pricey monthly power bills from VEC, I decided to better manage our usage. I got the sense and we installed it in the house panel. It is useful in managing usage, along with the VEC Smarthub. Later we installed a net-metered 15kW solar array but its not hooked to the sense since it isn't very close to the house and sugarhouse.

The sugarhouse and the house are each on separate 200 amp panels fed off the single 400 amp service. I was thinking about a buying a new sense for the sugarhouse and then upon researching the sense I realized that you can purchase another set of wire connectors and use the sense in it's split service mode. I originally set it up in the house panel on my own. I had my electrician do the split set up because there was almost no room for the device in the switch panel and I wasn't comfortable tapping into the heavier wire. There is no tapping into wires on a conventional electrical panel since you attach directly to a circuit breaker. So now, I monitor both our house and the sugarhouse.

As far as how it works - I'm completely satisfied. It occasionally goes down because I've got a weak wireless wifi connection at the service which is about 200 feet from both the house and the sugarhouse (both have wiresless routers). It doesn't always identify the appliances since it's kind of a crowd-source identification which you can correct and assign your own device name. The other thing is that it can take weeks for sense to isolate and identify the different devices. Also, I've noticed that my well pump for the house will kick on and be correctly identified - however, after a few minutes of running (like if we are watering the garden) it changes the identification to "other". I've only noticed this on the well pump.

I also have a lot of appliances I haven't identified that it calls motor 1, motor 2, motor 3, etc. It also thinks we have like 3 vacuum cleaners. I could do more to figure it out but haven't.

Overall I'd give it a very favorable recommendation - it's a very useful device and very reliable except for the internet issue. I use it quite a lot.

I hope this helps.

Ken

[GeneralStark]

tripped my service breaker once when everything was running full bore

That must have been stressful...

What is up with this weather...? A tornado nearby on Friday, a windstorm today and another in the forecast for tomorrow... cleaned a bunch of limbs off lines yesterday from the storm on Friday and will probably have to do more of the same when it is safe to go in the woods again.

Still getting sap and it has cleared up a bit. Had to dump some concentrate from sap that came in on Friday-> Sat am because it was ropey. It was stored in the chiller tank but I think it had spoiled before I ran it thru the ro as there was lots of slime in the bottom of the sap tank after draining it. I think the warm weather lead to conditions ideal for certain bacteria to grow in the tubing so this problem may persist. I did test boil some fresh sap this am and it seemed ok.

The power has stayed on despite the wind though it has flickered several times. Despite this the vac pump has stayed on which is surprising given the sensitivity of the VFD. Hopefully we can get thru tomorrow's forecasted wind storm without issue.

I'm planning to boil on Tuesday and whether that is with any new sap or just to boil out the pans is yet to be determined.

[Mead Maple]

I concentrated all the material I had on hand yesterday going from 1.1% up to the high teens. After boiling the product I ended up with was an absolutely delicious dark syrup that the whole family agreed that surprisingly was some of the best tasting syrup we’ve made all year. To be honest I was shocked. Only 60% of last years crop thus far, hoping this week will set up to at least make the same despite adding a bunch more taps.

Definitely going to be adding a guzzler pimp to the woods next year as a stepping stone from gravity to vacuum. Any reviews would be appreciated.

[DrTimPerkins]

Tim I assume you have a 200 amp service What are you upgrading it to?

I believe it is 200 amps. Originally was 100 amps and was expanded about 20 yrs ago. However the upgraded RO takes 110 amps at start-up, plus the evaporator and bulk tank and all the other stuff. We're constantly trying new things, so have to alter our electrical distribution, then changed again the next year, so we need the flexibility.

[sugartree310]

We boiled late yesterday afternoon to move along the sap we had which wasn’t much . We made 22 gallons of very dark syrup , definitely the darkest we have ever made . The flavor was ok strong dark syrup but I tasted a slight tint of something ,others thought it was great . Not buddy but maybe more a sour sap tint. Not saying we are done but we really need a good freeze to bring it back . We will see it’s 30 here now and has been since 6am still may not be enough .

[DrTimPerkins]

The power has stayed on despite the wind though it has flickered several times.

We've had a couple of outages this season. Once a few weeks ago power went out to the entire facility, then a couple of breakers would pop after power was restored. Took a few hrs before everything was back running again. Then again yesterday just before 3pm the power was off for about 30 minutes in much of Underhill. Fortunately it came back fairly quickly, but you always hate to see the power go down when the pumps are running.

[tapdrinker]

@ Tim... yikes. That could be a very expensive power issue. Have you thought about some tesla powerwalls to stop that from happening? Might make sense in a big operation.

[tapdrinker]

I have some pretty dark syrup in the buckets. I'll be mixing that with the regular to try to save the flavor. Probably will boil today. Hopefully the wind has died down.