Let's be realistic

[ennismaple]

I have sold sap since 2016 and I'm now exploring purchasing my own evaporator and everything that entails.

So my question is this, on an 4x14 evaporator with hoods and no steam away, concentrateing to 18%, how much oil would I use per gallon of syrup/ per hour of boiling?

I'm assuming an evaporation rate of 180 gallons of sap an hour producing approximately 40 gallons of syrup a hour. Is this realistic?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Not sure on oil consumption but we boil 200 GPH of 18 Brix concentrate on our 3.5x14 wood fired, making a drum per hour of finished syrup. The 4x14 is probably the right size if you're at 6000+ taps but is way too big at 3750. At 6000 taps you're looking at between a 2.5 hour boil (5000 gallons of sap) to a 5 hour boil (10,000 gallons) for a "normal" day, whatever that is!

[ecp]

Thank you guys, if I do get an evaporator I would add 3000 taps at my home woods. Because I'd have to put a pump station down in the woods to get the 3000 extra taps I feel like I am at the point where I need to decide if I go full scale with more taps and boil or stay the same size and continue selling sap. Both have benefits but I think I'd be better off boiling at a larger scale.

I have an 1800 gph ro expandable.

Brian, I'll stop by the next time I'm over that way.

Not that you are asking for my 2 cents - so toss this out the window if you would like. If I were you I would take a step back for 10 minutes and just look at what you want to do in the long term. I get that selling sap on your side of the state isn't as profitable as the western side of Vermont (15% to 20% higher over here from the numbers I've been told). An expansion essentially doubling your operation plus boiling comes with a lot of cost. If it were me I would add the taps and keep selling sap until they pay for themselves (1 or 2 years). With an end goal around 6500 taps I would get a high brix RO and a 3x12 evap because of profit margins and time I would put more money in the woods and the RO than the evaporator. Don't ever be shy of touring sugarhouse to pick up on things you like and things you hate. If you dont mind me asking why do you have an RO if you are selling sap?

[Ultimatetreehugger]

Don't ever be shy of touring sugarhouse to pick up on things you like and things you hate. If you dont mind me asking why do you have an RO if you are selling sap?

I have a weekend hobby of sugar house window peeping lol

So, I got an ro for several reasons,

Primary reason is that my buyer would get over run but there 21000 taps because they were under sized at the Ro and we would be in a constant stressful juggling match and on several occasions one of us would have sap on going on the ground. So after that experience I purchased an ro to i could recirculate until they were ready for me.
Secondly my old 99 ram dump truck was falling apart making 84 trips a year carrying 8250 pounds over steep muddy roads. Plus my trips was cut to 25 trips with no concern over sap loss.
The third was time. Two years ago I was blessed with my daughter and I really wanted to be able to spend time with her, especially dinner.

The fourth was the value of sap is higher this way.