Factorio Forums

There should be a way to kickstart water/steam pumps at remote outposts that are severed from the main grid, or to recover from blackouts, especially at night when solar panels can't be used!

Another issue is that other machines will siphon electricity away from pumps during a blackout, which is especially problematic if you have 100%/dense power area coverage (with substations for example).

I suggest a simple mechanic of manual unbarreling which would let you click or place a water/steam barrel into a storage tank to empty the barrel directly by hand.

So you could carry a few water/steam barrels with you to always be prepared for blackouts, or to set up new outposts.

E.g. Accumulators powers by solar panels, intermittently operating coal miners and steam engines or stored steam in barrels or tanks.
All doable by applying a little bit of circuit network.

SupplyDepoo wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 11:04 am Another issue is that other machines will siphon electricity away from pumps during a blackout,

That can easily be solved by using a seperate electric network for the pumps and a priority power switch that only lets's power into the main grid if the power plant infrastructure itself has 100% satisfaction. At least that's what i always do.

SupplyDepoo wrote: ↑Mon Aug 03, 2020 11:04 am I suggest a simple mechanic of manual unbarreling which would let you click or place a water/steam barrel into a storage tank to empty the barrel directly by hand.

Or you could try my Hand Crank Generator. (You probably want to tweak the mod settings for recipes.)