Yet more help with fluids/pressure

[Dougalishere]

So this is my set up on my refinery to lubericant
http://prntscr.com/amlo6p

my gas output is reading 8.2 my light oil is at 6.3 but my heavy oil is coming out the refinery at 0.0

I lost all pressure when my refineries stopped working cos my peterol storage got full , i fixed that and refineries started working again but I can not get my heavy oil pressure back up, I stopped all production that uses lubricant , and all heavy oil cracking but the pressure still wont return, Im at a complete loss I really dont understand these random pressure drops, I have tried googling but I just get answers related to long distance pumping and pressure, wich is not the problem here.

I had been keeping my storage in check b4, but I was replacing a lot of furnaces with electic furnaces and upgrading my belts so hadnt been back to check on my oil system for some time it really is driving me insane !

If anyone could please take a look at my screenie and offer some ideas i would be eternally grateful.. thx a lot in advance Dougal.

[Koub]

Can you provide a save ?

[BlakeMW]

So this is my set up on my refinery to lubericant
http://prntscr.com/amlo6p

my gas output is reading 8.2 my light oil is at 6.3 but my heavy oil is coming out the refinery at 0.0.

The simple answer is the heavy oil is being consumed as quickly as it is created, there is almost certainly no alternative answer. It is likely the lubricant plant is consuming all the heavy oil and turning it into lubricant which is filling the lubricant pipes (pipes have a surprisingly large capacity to "store" liquid). Advanced Oil Processing generates very little heavy oil so the lubricant plant can consume it very quickly indeed.

When liquid is being consumed as quickly as it is being created a reading of 0 is fine and normal, it means the liquid is flowing smoothly and not backing up in the pipes.

[Dougalishere]

yeah i thought that to but i had turned off all processes that used lubricant /heavy oil etc , just to see what would happen and the pressure remained a 0.

Following on from your thought I added 2 new refineries doing normal oil processing and removed a couple of my heavy oil storage tanks and it seems to of fixed that problem, I have 1 heavy to light oil cracking , and I have set up some extra plastics production so my peterol doesnt get filled up and stall my refineries , now my problem seems to be the storing of the light oil .. I really wish there was a way to just burn off excess oils u dont need #

I mean i have 7 refineries 5 of wich are advanced , the only thing i had using lubricants is blye belt production wich shouldnt of been using more that I was making. Im just concerned that what I have done to "fix" it is a short term fix and the problem will rise again when Im not constantly checking my refineries , wich is a problem because I would like to be able just get on with upgrading all my belts/furnaces without going to check my refineries evry couple of seconds.

Im pretty sure Im just missing something and that is what is breaking my production and I just cant seem to work out what it is.

Like I say from following your advice my pressure has risen from my heavy oil but im kinda sure i am missing something to keep evrything autommated so I dont have to freak out all the time about my oils production.

Is there any more advice you could give me concerning fluids and production.

PS I have 8 pumpjacks , feeding 7 refineries , I have a load of crude storage tanks b4 the refineries wich are maxed all the time maybe I dont have enough refineries ?

[BlakeMW]

Following on from your thought I added 2 new refineries doing normal oil processing and removed a couple of my heavy oil storage tanks and it seems to of fixed that problem, I have 1 heavy to light oil cracking , and I have set up some extra plastics production so my peterol doesnt get filled up and stall my refineries , now my problem seems to be the storing of the light oil .. I really wish there was a way to just burn off excess oils u dont need #

1 heavy oil to light oil cracking can consume all the heavy oil of about 8 refineries doing advanced oil processing, it can easily starve a lubricant plant.

A common solution is to have a storage tank for heavy oil, then have a pump which pumps from the storage tank into the heavy oil -> light oil cracking plant. Connect the tank and pump with a red or green wire, then set a circuit condition "Heavy Oil > 500", this will cause only excess heavy oil to be cracked, giving first priority to lubricant production.

Another solution is to just build up a stockpile of lubricant, just disable heavy oil cracking and fill a storage tank with lubricant, once the tank is full, re-enable heavy oil cracking. It takes a long time to use 2500 lubricant.
(Btw, you can temporarily disable a chemical plant by rotating it)

I mean i have 7 refineries 5 of wich are advanced , the only thing i had using lubricants is blye belt production wich shouldnt of been using more that I was making.

Things which use lubricant require a surprising amount, for instance if you produce blue belts at full speed you use 4 lubricant a second while a chemical plant can only produce 1.25 lubricant a second and that's only if it has enough heavy oil. So it's entirely possible for blue belt production to use lubricant faster than it is created. It's not normally a problem though if you make a stockpile of lubricant in advance (even the lubricant stored in pipes can be enough) because normally you only need to make a few hundred blue belt at once.

[Melfish]

If you want to controll the flow of heavy oil even better you could use the circuit network.

[Dougalishere]

what is going wrong .zip

(11.97 MiB) Downloaded 88 times

I think as im incapable of even understanding a lot of basic stuff ill let the circit network go for the time being , I will do the thing where my storage tanks are set up to only use the heavy oil to cracking if there is greater than 500 in tank, I hace attached my save file so you can all see how horrible I am at the game. , In the save file I Have just removed the heavy to light oil cracking for the time being, while i sort out these wires and the greater than suff...


Thanks to all for your replies it has helped me understand this part of the game a little bit more. <3

[Dougalishere]

Following on from your thought I added 2 new refineries doing normal oil processing and removed a couple of my heavy oil storage tanks and it seems to of fixed that problem, I have 1 heavy to light oil cracking , and I have set up some extra plastics production so my peterol doesnt get filled up and stall my refineries , now my problem seems to be the storing of the light oil .. I really wish there was a way to just burn off excess oils u dont need #

1 heavy oil to light oil cracking can consume all the heavy oil of about 8 refineries doing advanced oil processing, it can easily starve a lubricant plant.

A common solution is to have a storage tank for heavy oil, then have a pump which pumps from the storage tank into the heavy oil -> light oil cracking plant. Connect the tank and pump with a red or green wire, then set a circuit condition "Heavy Oil > 500", this will cause only excess heavy oil to be cracked, giving first priority to lubricant production.

Another solution is to just build up a stockpile of lubricant, just disable heavy oil cracking and fill a storage tank with lubricant, once the tank is full, re-enable heavy oil cracking. It takes a long time to use 2500 lubricant.
(Btw, you can temporarily disable a chemical plant by rotating it)

I mean i have 7 refineries 5 of wich are advanced , the only thing i had using lubricants is blye belt production wich shouldnt of been using more that I was making.

Things which use lubricant require a surprising amount, for instance if you produce blue belts at full speed you use 4 lubricant a second while a chemical plant can only produce 1.25 lubricant a second and that's only if it has enough heavy oil. So it's entirely possible for blue belt production to use lubricant faster than it is created. It's not normally a problem though if you make a stockpile of lubricant in advance (even the lubricant stored in pipes can be enough) because normally you only need to make a few hundred blue belt at once.

this was some awsome info thanks man, the wire>pump thing worked really nicely (I had actaully used that earlier on something but just didnt think about it for this) and I am now storing a tanks worth of lube as well for when im not using it.

I set up a couple of factories making plastic just so I can use some of my excess oil to stop it filling up. It seems my main problem now is if i just leave this to go and get on with my upgrading smelting area main bus etc evrything is going to grind to a halt again and thats where I seem to start having problems because before I start going into later tech or more expansion I want to upgrade things and tidy up my factory etc so i dont really even have a use for all this gas at the moment


Thanks to evryone that offered advice and help I really appricate it

Dougal

EDIT, added another save of the changes I made after following your advice Thanks a lot again

think its fixed.zip

(11.63 MiB) Downloaded 89 times

EDIT: lol the thing with the pump and wires IS the circuit network ..

[twepy]

Ah those Factorio first world problems u have the resources but no (not yet) a purpose for it.

And ive spotted a issue with your heavy to light oil cracking facility in your last save, the plumping is not completely connected

[axelsword]

I haven't run into problems with oil pressure.

What I do know that there is a way to keep refineries working. Just make more storage tanks for other kinds of liquids or have chemical plants create solid fuel. Done.

[twepy]

More storage? Thats not the way to true Factorio enlightenment. He just needs to adjust the size of the rest of his base to accommodate his oil production.

[Dougalishere]

Ah those Factorio first world problems u have the resources but no (not yet) a purpose for it.

And ive spotted a issue with your heavy to light oil cracking facility in your last save, the plumping is not completely connected

LOL yeah i found that and corrected it shortly after, the small connection pump with green wire has seemed to stabalise my production ... but honestly i just ignored it for the rest of the day and spent most of my day upgrading my furnaces and busses and making all my power cables look tidy and neat lol , allways something to do in this game its amazing.

More storage? Thats not the way to true Factorio enlightenment. He just needs to adjust the size of the rest of his base to accommodate his oil production.

Yeah what ive done is now sort out a proper factory line for plastics and thats keeping my petrol in check now. evrything seems to be tickity boo now i just need to work out where to go next to be perfectly honest im just happy to understand fluids a little bit better now (not completly) and to have tidy power cables in my smelting area

EDIT: added my new save if anyone wants to check it out and offer reccomendations on where to head now

PLASTICS DONE.zip

(12 MiB) Downloaded 76 times