Automated Boilers

[Jaalco]

I have set up a complex system with my power station that involves putting fresh solid fuel straight into the boilers with splitters and inserters. However, my boilers will only take 5 solid fuel this way but I can manually put a whole stack in. Why is it that my boilers can only hold 5 solid fuel in this setup?

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[Nexela]

Machines only accept a limited amount of stuff from inserters/bots. This is done so as not to have 1 machine take all of your resources and the next one down the line doesn't get any. What good is a boiler with 50 solid fuel if the next 10 boilers don't have any. As soon as 1 of the 5 solid fuel gets used up the inserter will grab another to keep it "topped" off.

Edit: Pro-tip

1 offshore pump can feed 10 steam engines, 14 boilers are required to have max efficiency with 10 steam engines.

[Jaalco]

Okay, I see. I was just worried my conveyor would get clogged up.
Thank you.

[The Eriksonn]

Having the conveyor clogged up is never a bad thing(unless it it,but here it isn´t). The items never despawn and that just means that the chemplants will stop using up all of your stuff. if you want to get rid of the oilstuff you can put the solidfuel in an chest(needed for the rocket).

[Quax]

One more "pro" tip on boilers: you do not need to have to feed each boiler with a seperate belt. Boiles also work like "chests", so you can "forward" coal from one boiler to the next by use of an inserter in between:



This will give you a much more "compressed" setup. You also can see the one pump / 14 boilers / 10 steam engines setup here.

SIde note for proper credits: this setup is not a finding of me .. there is a thread around here describing this setup, I just couldn't find it, so I posted my own setup.

[Deadly-Bagel]

If you want more of a buffer (so that if your oil dries up you've got more time to sort it out before your power dies) you should use an inserter to pull solid fuel off the belt and into a chest, then a second inserter taking it from the chest and back onto the belt (at least one tile closer to the boilers of course so it doesn't loop).

So when your boilers are no longer taking fuel it will just stack up in the chest. If your supply runs out the chest will start unloading the fuel back onto the belt to give you more time to fix the problem. You can use multiple chests along the belt to increase the buffer, just note how much of your light oil this will tie up not doing anything.