I'm out of steam and low on power

[Mauslag PIngman]

I have four nuclear reactors, all burning nuclear fuel as they have been for several real time days. I had been collecting steam in many tanks from this and shipping it by train across the map to fill more tanks and run power out in the distance. I also have dozens of old fashioned steam engines running, maybe 80 steam engines.

I'm only producing a total of 320mw right now and I'm in the yellow. I don't see why just the 4 nukes aren't making enough to stay in the green. I look at my steam turbines and they currently running that well. Maybe only 7 of them are actually spewing steam. Sometimes if they're in a line, the ones furthest from the reactor are putting out steam and the ones closer to the reactor are idle.

With the old steam engines I noticed if I put more than two in a line only the first 2 would run so I put in lots of boilers with 2 steam engines on each and that was okay. Seemed weird though. not how it used to work. The steam turbines did work though as far as I can remember. I don't know why they aren't producing steam and power now. I have four pumps and they show water. Everything seems to be hooked to the electrical grid. I think I'm running version 16 of the game. I''ve opted out of the betas which I once took part but it hasn't downloaded 17, which I think is the current game.

It used to work. All my dozens of tanks were full and then I went to build rail networks for a couple of days and I hadn't noticed anything until today I happened to check and all my steam was gone and I was running power in yellow. Its usually rail that has me totally mystified. This time its the power and the shortage of steam. Seems like I must not have enough water, but four pumps should be enough I think for 4 reactors. They show almost perfectly full of water.

I have dozens of machines that are hooked to the power grid, but they aren't running because their products aren't being fed into things like smelters and assemblers yet. They're just hooked and idling.

[DaveMcW]

With the old steam engines I noticed if I put more than two in a line only the first 2 would run so I put in lots of boilers with 2 steam engines on each and that was okay. Seemed weird though. not how it used to work. The steam turbines did work though as far as I can remember.

Heat exchangers are even worse than boilers, they can only power 1.72 steam tubines. You need 48 heat exchangers to run a 2x2 nuclear reactor at full power.

Also, make sure your heat exchangers are getting enough heat and water. Heat and water pipes stop working if there are too many heat exchangers attached to them.

[Serenity]

One offshore pump can supply 12 heat exchangers. I like to pair that with 20 or 21 turbines. And don't mix water or steam between each of those sets. If you give fluids a choice of where to go things get messy. In designs where everything is connected to each other you can easily run into situations where some turbines aren't running when they should. It's a weakness of the game's fluid system

[JimBarracus]

With the old steam engines I noticed if I put more than two in a line only the first 2 would run so I put in lots of boilers with 2 steam engines on each and that was okay. Seemed weird though. not how it used to work. The steam turbines did work though as far as I can remember.

a boiler can supply enough steam to run two steam engines on full throttle
it seems like it can run more, when less energy is needed because the steam can spread on more steam engines.
But on full throttle the first 2 steam engines soak up all the steam.

about nucular: how high is the temp in the heat pipes?
is it 1000°? then the heat exchangers need more water, or more heat exchangers
is it 500°? then you draw the max power from the reactors.

[Ranger_Aurelien]

With the old steam engines

0.16 is "stable", 0.17 is "experimental", but I've had no issues with 0.17 since I installed it in march (it has a lot more features and devs/veterans will likely be able to help you quicker if you use 0.17).


https://wiki.factorio.com/Power_production

Note that coal steam and nuclear steam have different temperature values. Are your high and low temperature steam networks separate? Do you have any solar or accumulators?

To clarify, are both your nuclear steam source silo and trained destination silos empty?


If you don't mind me asking, why not produce the power at the nuclear reactor?



Let's double-check ratios:
1 coal-powered "boiler" powers 2 "steam engine". (1 water pump to 10 "boilers"/20 "steam engines")

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Nuclear_power

for a 4-core nuclear plant you need 48 heat exchangers and 4 water pumps. These provide enough steam for 84 "Steam turbines".



As an aside: the nuclear cores don't need to operate 24/7 to constantly create steam... See circuit links for that:

https://wiki.factorio.com/Tutorial:Circ ... k_cookbook
"Optimal usage of fuel for nuclear power"

This feature will have two effects:
1) Only consume fuel when heat exchangers are not all hot enough to generate steam
2) Shut down the 4 cores if the steam reserves are full

This would always have application, particularly if your trains can't take away steam fast enough. (Do you "burn" any steam there for power?).

[Mauslag PIngman]

Sorry, wrote some of this yesterday....

It worked. I more than doubled my heat exchangers and that took care of it. I think all the steam turbines are running now.

I deactivate dozens of steam engines too, to cut down on pollution. I have too much oil though. Seems like it doesn't miss the power from the solid fuel. Biter attacks are up. They've moved in close while I've been doing other things. Maybe after awhile pollution will go down, but I think the mode of play I chose means they're always going to build closer to my equipment.

I already have vast oil fields. I suppose I could convert it all to rocket fuel and then nuclear fuel, but I only have a few trains. Guess I'm going to have to turn all my oil into rocket fuel and launch rockets.