Why not build all Boilers and Steam Engines at once?

[Peter34]

Is there a problem with building a "full setup" of Boilers and Steam engines at once?

My usual setup is that I build all Boilers at once, usually 16 (I've found that 13-14 isn't enough) in several rows, with Underground Piping between so I can more easily move around. Then I build a conveyer belt to move Coal around. I make an Inserter for each Boiler, but for almost all of them I disable the Inserter by turning it the wrong way ("R" key) so that initially only 2 or 3 of my Boilers are "active". I then add the first Steam Engine.

Later on I add more Steam Engines, one or two at a time, ending up with one "block" of 6, and another "block" of 4, all connected in linear fashion (because it's my understanding that you mustn't split the steamy hot water), but the two blocks separated by Underground Piping so that - again - I'm well able to run around and fight aliens when they come visit me.

Also, is it actually necessary for me to "disable" already-built Boilers? It seems to me that they turn off, cease consuming their stored Coal, if they're not needed, i.e. if the water reaching them is already at 100 C. So should I just have them all enabled from the get go?



But would it actually be a problem if I just plonk down all 10 Steam Engines at once, all connected up? That way, I just have to enable the Boilers 1 or 2 at a time, as my electricity need goes up. It's just, I still have only an extremely limited understanding of how the whole Boiler/Steam thing works, so I'm not sure if it'd cause problems or not.

(I did try adding an 11th and even 12th Steam Engine to the same piping system, but that caused massive loss of water, rapidly dropping to under 2.0 and apparently on its way to 0.0. To get it back up to over 8.0 I had to remove almost all of my Steam Engines, so I only had 2 or 3 left, then once water rating went up high again I re-added so I had a total of 10 Steam Engines. So I know with certainty not to do that.)

[Boogieman14]

Other than resource availability, I see no reason at all not to build an entire setup all at once. It's what I've been doing most of the time as well lately. Also, boilers only burn fuel if that's needed to keep the water temp at 100C, and steam engines will only consume water if there's actual electric demand. So also, no need to turn away those inserters. Just put it down and make sure there's stuff to burn, basically

Finally, yeah, one offshore pump puts out water for a maximum of 10 steam engines. Anything over that and as you've noticed, performance will crash hard. Supposedly, 13 boilers should be enough for those 10 engines to run up to 99% efficiency. I always build 15 for safety (and just because I can). You could probably run more engines on the same circuit by adding more offshore pumps, but since you still need extra boilers and everything as well, it's easier to not bother with the complexity but just build an entirely new circuit.

You can view my current setup here http://www.boogieman.eu/FactorioMaps/Fa ... -20141111/ , just zoom in on the southern wall of the main base to see my power plant. (Note that this is using Bob's Power mod mk2 steam engines, which run more efficiently and do 15 engines on those 1 pump+15 boilers; mk3 does 20 engines, so there's space reserved for that as well). The field of accumulators is there to deal with peak demand when biters need vaporizing.

[Ca_Putt]

I tend to lay the foundation for such a boiler setup with only pipes. Not because of energy issues but because Boilers use up Stone furnaces and once I swith to steel and subsequently Electric miniers, they just clutter up my Inventory.