Heated Releaser Boxes
Over the last five years we’ve always battled ice on the west side of our Robinson Road property. Without a pump house and vacuum pump to keep everything warm, the mechanical releaser would inevitably freeze. The resulting ice always caused issues on the 2000 taps it serviced. This year we ran 2200′ of service wire to power a new electric releaser and space heater, all contained in an insulated box. We also ran electric to the sap lift 500′ away for another space heater/insulated box combo. So far everything has stayed comfortably above freezing and we’ve avoided all of the issues that plagued us in the past.
The freeze up this past week allowed us to finish tapping and finish a few repairs. The weekly weather report shows the season kicking into gear soon, we’re ready for more sap!
What wire size and type did you use for the 2200’ run? Thanks
2 gauge aluminum, oversized since it was marginally more expensive than the 6 gauge we needed for our heater/submersible pump and we knew we may add a vacuum pump later, which we did do this summer. You should definitely run the voltage drop calculations for whatever you decided to install though