Hello all, I've been looking everywhere for an answer to this and cannot seem to solve it.
I know the ratios for all the engine stuff. 1 pump can fill like 40 engines or whatnot, but more important to starting is 1 boiler to two engines. My problem is that one boiler now burns through coal constantly, and runs out very fast. Im talking like minutes before a refill, while the other can last a past 30 mins on a full load. Am I missing a new mechanic somewhere? I've played for several months and have beaten the game several times. But took a good year break.
New Boiler/Steam system
Re: New Boiler/Steam system
A screenshot of your setup and what exactly the problem is would be good.
Re: New Boiler/Steam system
This is normal. I recommend building a belt from your coal mine to automate refilling.
You don't consume enough power to need 2 boilers, so the other one does not run very much.
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zOldBulldog
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Re: New Boiler/Steam system
I do not fully understand what you are saying, but here are a few steam power thoughts that might help. You probably already know some but a few might be what you are looking for.
And worst case scenario this might help a beginner reading your thread.
- Since about 0.15 (maybe before) the normal steam design is one offshore pump feeds water to a line of 20 boilers, and each boiler feeds steam to 2 steam engines. A belt of coal also feeds the boilers through burner or electric inserters.
- Using pipe to connect the rear of the furthest of the 2 steam engines of each set together and to some fluid tanks lets you store excess steam. The excess steam is great to protect you from brown outs when you have spikes in power usage like when firing laser turrets. It *might* also help even out the consumption issue you mention.
- You can use a pump and circuit conditions to cut off the water supply. This works wonders if you have other sources of power {like nuclear} and you want to auto-regulate the steam plant so that it shuts down if there is enough power in the network. In other words, use coal in your steam plant only as a backup measure.
- The most common circuit condition is to read an accumulator charge level and to enable the pump if charge (A) is greater than for example 20%.
- An additional condition I like to use is to enable the pump when one of the buffer tanks steam volume is less than 70% full
- The above techniques can be mixed and matched so that your boilers only fire when needed.
- Even without the techniques steam plants slow down automatically if there isn't enough consumption.
- Finally, solid fuel lasts longer than coal. Also, using the priority of the new splitters to send your wood to burn first is a good way to get rid of useless trash wood.
And worst case scenario this might help a beginner reading your thread.
- Since about 0.15 (maybe before) the normal steam design is one offshore pump feeds water to a line of 20 boilers, and each boiler feeds steam to 2 steam engines. A belt of coal also feeds the boilers through burner or electric inserters.
- Using pipe to connect the rear of the furthest of the 2 steam engines of each set together and to some fluid tanks lets you store excess steam. The excess steam is great to protect you from brown outs when you have spikes in power usage like when firing laser turrets. It *might* also help even out the consumption issue you mention.
- You can use a pump and circuit conditions to cut off the water supply. This works wonders if you have other sources of power {like nuclear} and you want to auto-regulate the steam plant so that it shuts down if there is enough power in the network. In other words, use coal in your steam plant only as a backup measure.
- The most common circuit condition is to read an accumulator charge level and to enable the pump if charge (A) is greater than for example 20%.
- An additional condition I like to use is to enable the pump when one of the buffer tanks steam volume is less than 70% full
- The above techniques can be mixed and matched so that your boilers only fire when needed.
- Even without the techniques steam plants slow down automatically if there isn't enough consumption.
- Finally, solid fuel lasts longer than coal. Also, using the priority of the new splitters to send your wood to burn first is a good way to get rid of useless trash wood.