Factorio Forums

Hey guys, I've noticed something that surely cannot be correct, namely that Steel Furnaces and Electric Furnaces have the same smelting speed.

If this is indeed correct, is the only benefit using electricity instead of coal? I have plenty of coal being used for nothing else besides boilers so it using coal is not an issue. Building an electric furnace takes a bit of effort for not much benefit, it seems. Am I missing something?

Both have their strengths and weaknesses, and I use both.

Steel Furnaces are good for refurbished stone smelting where you're already routing coal or solid fuel to them. This is more energy efficient than routing the fuel to steam plants, since you lose energy potential at the boilers. The downside is that they are unmoddable, and require additional logistic considerations (need a fuel line). The upside is that, material wise, they are insanely less expensive than electrical plants (which require advanced circuits).

Electric Furnaces are good for remote smelting away from ore or fuel sources such as a few furnaces to produce steel for Blue Packs without needing a centralized steel smelter. They take up more space, but only require base materials and output. Additionally, they can be modded to your liking (most opt for power efficiency). Only when they are modded with Efficiency mods are they more power efficient than steel smelters (and by the same measure, less pollution).

There is usually no reason to demolish and rebuild a steel furnace assembly and replace them with electric furnaces unless you REALLY want to, or are concerned about fuel shortages or your pollution profile in an area with no trees. Electric furnaces with efficiency modules can run quite well on solar alone, but that requires a fair bit of tech and significant material investments. I normally reserve electric furnaces for localized steel production so that I don't need a major steel production line that has to be routed everywhere. It's much more efficient to just route iron plates.

If you have a nearby fuel source or excess solid fuel laying around, there's no real shame in relying heavily on steel plants and reserving electric furnaces specifically for steel and remote refining to keep your frontier pollution in check.

SilasG wrote:Hey guys, I've noticed something that surely cannot be correct, namely that Steel Furnaces and Electric Furnaces have the same smelting speed.

Electric Furnaces have module slots, other furnaces aren't.

Slots! Of course - they have slots! Wow, I knew there had to be some other benefit over steel furnaces besides just using electricity.

Also, thank you for the tip about localized steel with electric furnaces. That would also make setting up a wall factory much easier. In anycase, thanks for straightening that out for me.

SilasG wrote:Slots! Of course - they have slots! Wow, I knew there had to be some other benefit over steel furnaces besides just using electricity.

Also, thank you for the tip about localized steel with electric furnaces. That would also make setting up a wall factory much easier. In anycase, thanks for straightening that out for me.

It's slow, sometimes requiring a couple smelters, but it's easier than piping steel. Also, they will stockpile steel up to a full stack each (even with inserters nearby, unlike factories), which makes up for its sluggishness in production speed by a significant margin. This only works if the factories consuming the steel aren't an 'open tap' and perpetually demand more steel. Setting good thresholds should give the steel furnaces a chance to 'catch up' to handle production bursts.

The big disadvantage is the material drain and complexity that's required to build them, requiring advanced chips (and an entire oil industry in place). The increased space consumption is also an issue when faced with the prospect of having to completely re-engineer your initial smelting factories. This is usually where I just say 'steel furnaces are fine' and devote my efforts elsewhere.