Ok, I found the point of difference in all our math: the beacon sharing.

Your formula is based on sharing the beacon effect among as many machines as possible, effectively distributing the beacon burden across all machines. My math was based on if beacons were not shared, meaning that each pump had ...

My hypothesis? In this thread I didn't make any assumptions...
Probably we are talking about different initial conditions, in my case any modules may be used (that's why E=1.5483), and your case seems to be without modules at all.

The term hypothesis was me mixing terminology from both ...

Actually, the only difference I can see in our formulas is what our E is. In your case, you denote it as net energy. For me, I used it as gross energy gain, which is why I just replaced it with 1 MW for 0.1 oil/s. And the more I look at the calculation, the more I feel like you are wrong on your end ...

So how many pumps does a speed 3 beacon have to cover to be worth it?

At 2 pumps, you pay 50% of the profit to run the beacon.
At 1 pump, you pay 100% of the profit to run the beacon.

If you use XKnight's productivity + efficiency beacon scheme farther down the line, you could even come out ...

Thanks for the links. The second one was particularly useful as it help me notice the 50% boiler efficiency, which I have now taken account of in the calculations. As for not asking, it was mostly me being bored and wanting to do some hard number crunching math.

Well, if I can just ask ...

First off, as I haven't fully read through the forum, I may be repeating what someone else has calculated, in which case, I apologize. However, given that the wiki "Oil" and "Energy" pages do not mention what I will do, I believe I am in the clear.

As some have noticed, sunlight is both infinite ...