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Steam Power. It'll last you quiiite a while. Probably. But the question is, exactly HOW long? At what point will you have to think about looking for another coal deposit? While I can't answer the second question, I can certainly help you answer the first! By following the... following... you'll know how long your Coal deposit will last!

For those wondering about background, this was something that I decided to figure out on Colonelwill's Megabase stream. How long a particular buffer will last for, assuming it was full.


Anyway! To determine how long a specific coal (S)upply will last:

(B)oiler Stack num = Num of lines X 14*

Number of (R)otations = S/B

(T)ime in secs = R X 13**

Final time in hours = T/60/60

*A Boiler line is 14 Boilers

**1 Coal burns for 13 secs, assuming boilers are working at full capacity



So, if we assume:

Boilers are working at full capacity

There is 336k Coal in storage

The Boiler burn times are:

1 Boiler line: 86.6 Hours

2 Boiler lines: 43.3 Hours

4 Boiler lines: 21.6 Hours

(These numbers are truncated)

I made this about two or so hours ago. So any glaring issues, feel free to speak up.

Or work backwards from the fuel value?

336k coal * 8MJ/coal = 2688000MJ (assuming boilers/steam are 100% efficient - are they?)
If steam provides 20MW on average, that lasts for 2688000 / 20 = 134400 seconds = 37.3 hours

Using the energy values i think is a more robust way to do these calculations. That way, you can use things besides coal.

Wood is 4 mJ
Coal is 8 mJ
Solid Fuel is 25 mJ

Unless you have a high demand for Lubricant, using Solid Fuel from Heavy oil seems like a cool way to make your coal last longer since you will only be using it for plastic at that point.

Boilers have been stated to have 50% efficiency, and the major mods treat them that way.