Factorio Forums

In this silver birthday issue of Alt-F4, TheKool returns for this third and final instalment of his series about modules. In it, he covers efficiency modules by talking about the theory and then presenting a real(ish)-world experiment!

Continue reading: https://alt-f4.blog/ALTF4-25/

Wow, this was a real eye-opener!

I have been using the Efficiency modules only to offset the increased power consumption of other modules. I wasn't aware of the reduction in pollution output.

Pollution-wise speaking (considering energy from solar), putting efficiency modules in beacons have no drawbacks, only advantages. Because beacons, while having a 480kW energy consumption, doesn't produce pollution on their own.

We could investigate the effects of mixing different types of beacons. For example, the standard mixing of speed modules in beacons and productivity in assemblers have an effect of:
-up to 40% more productivity, which is 28.6% less items consumption per craft
-Increasing the production speed further than just using speed modules
-Reducing the footprint per craft
And more surprisingly,
-Reducing the energy consumption per craft
-Reducing the pollution per craft

I noticed that using beacons with mixed speed and efficiency modules have a very similar effect on energy consumption and pollution per craft, this will require more testings.