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It is all quite confusing, and especially moreso when you cannot find a wiki with good, accurate numbers.
Ah well, the fun is in figuring it out. But I'm truly shocked at how much steam I need here to run this darn thing. that's 5 buckets per TICK!
So, using Gregtech only (which is what I prefer), it would appear you are not thinking straight if you do something like what I did... put your big steam tank way at the back of your base, but put your GT machines way up at the front. Instead, you should crowd all your turbines and machines as close to your steam tank as possible to save on fluid pipe cost. Base layout? Fah-get about it! One chunk build, baby! LOL
One of the biggest lessons I got from the
GregTech Survival Guide when I first read it is that if with GregTech, if you don't plan ahead and think everything you do through you will be punished. Maybe harshly (exploding machines) or maybe just inconvenienced (sloshing steam over long distance pipes or power drop), but it'll happen.
It's almost always better to strive for a 1 or 2 chunk build with GT. Multiblock structures should never be built over chunk borders. If you have your steam tank in one chunk and machines in another and you walk too far in one direction one may work and the other may not. Even worse if your water supply is in another chunk from your boilers...
I almost always strive to attach my boilers and turbines directly to my RC tank. Right now I've got max size steel RC tank (9x9x8z). On one side I have a 36LP RC liquid boiler consuming creosote with a Large Bronze Boiler right next to it. Both boilers output directly into RC tank valves. All my steam generation in one spot in the same chunk as my RC tank, with water source and creosote source also in the same chunk. My tree farm and coke ovens are also in this same chunk. My RC steam turbine is connected directly to the RC steam tank also on the bottom (eventually I'll have more) and this outputs power to the machines that are directly below the steam tank in two floors that are each 1 chunk in size, and also consequently in the same chunk as my boilers and tank. Everything is close and compact and I've got noise mufflers about to deaden the sound.
I've also got a string of MV machines in another room that's in a separate chunk from the rest. But this all runs off of refined oil fuel. My oil refinery, fuel tank, and MV machines are all in the same chunk. I'm keeping these separate from the rest of my machines because I generally only build about 6 MV machines and don't want to use floor space in my primary factory to support these as I make the transition to HV. Once I start making HV equipment I'll have added 2 more RC turbines for a total of 3. I'll be outputting to MFSUs to store power and then transmit to my HV machines which will go where my LV machines are now. By then I'll be able to make enough Magical Energy Absorbers to power these LV machines else where from energized TC nodes and I'll use them for automation where speed isn't important.
All of this design consideration is based upon mistakes I made, and lots of them, the first time I played GT. And I'm sure my setup can be improved significantly if I thought about it more.