Question about Boilers (HP Boiler)

[Setari]

I couldn't find anything (but I'm dead tired so I obviously didn't look 'round too much) on how many engines a 36 block HP steam boiler running on liquid fuel can support? I think it's eight but I'm not sure? I'm using 8 commercial steam engines, going to upgrade to industrial steam engines very soon. Gonna use 'em to power our quarry from our house.

But yeah, the question.

Edit: Also how many Industrials can it support?

 

[Hydra]

A 36HP boiler can sustain 18 industrial engines exactly. For HP boilers it's simply the volume in blocks divided by 2 for industrial engines. For LP boilers it's half, so you would be able to sustain 9 industrial engines (or 18 commercial engines).

So a single 36HP boiler will net an output of 144 MJ/t.

 

[Setari]

Sustain them at a full 7MJ/t?

 

[Peppe]

18 industrial or
36 commercial or
72 hobbyist
Or any combination that use 720 steam.

 

[Setari]

My 36HP boiler can only sustain 8 Commercial at a full 4 MJ/t. Am I doing something wrong?

Edit: If I try and activate any other engines around it, the engine's power is cut down to roughly 2.7 MJ/t.

 

[Peppe]

What pipes are you using off the boiler?
gold are 40 steam and must stay seperated.
Unpowered Liqiducts are ~80 steam and can be combined
Powered liquiducts are ~160 steam and can be combined.

So to get all the steam off the boiler you should make 4 powered liquiduct connections (wrench + redstone).
Or 8 unpowered connections
Or 16 gold
I think 72 stone pipes is an option' but they can't combine.

 

[Setari]

By 'powered' liquiducts which is what I'm using for EVERYTHING now lol, you mean hitting it with a wrench so there's an arrow and turning it on with a redstone torch/lever right?

In which case yes I'm using powered liquiducts. I'll post a screenshot of my setup here, I think I might know what the problem is though...\

Neatness isn't exactly my forte, but I think the problem is that the engines are sharing pipes, so that's why I'm not able to support the full number of commercial steam engines.

 

[MilConDoin]

The problem is (as I interpret that screnshot), that you only have one liquiduct connected to the boiler, instead of 5 (or 9 if unpowered).

 

[Setari]

So it can't just push all the steam out of one tube, it has to have 5 powered ones with 5 separate lines connecting to engines then?

And yes you're right, it's only 1 liquiduct.

 

[Abdiel]

The easiest solution is to attach your engines directly to the boiler, with no pipes inbetween bottlenecking the system.

 

[Setari]

Uh... k, I'll try that. Honestly I always attach engines to whatever they're powering, never thought of putting the engines on the power source lol. I can just place them on it and they'll fill up with steam then?

 

[MilConDoin]

Yes, they will draw their steam directly.
If you want to keep your current setup: Just add a few ducts to the boiler and connect them to your steam-line. All 720 steam can fit through one single liquiduct, the real bottleneck is the speed of input (thus 5 instead of 1).

 

[Setari]

I'm trying to set it up with them on the boiler right now. If I can't do that I'll go back to the way I had it and just do what you said Mil. Thanks very much guys.

Edit:

Tah-dahhhh!

Woo! I still have a few engines left to put on, then I'm making some steel for industrial engines. Thanks so much guys.

 

[Setari]

Question about supplying fuel to the boiler: How much biofuel is needed to support (and by support I mean fill the boiler to full) about 36 engines running off my HP boiler? This thing is running through fuel like MAD and I can't keep up. I'd have to be making fertilizer and putting saplings into the Fermenters for biomass like... every ten or 15 minutesish. At least that's what it seems like. And we have 2 hoppers over 3 Fermenters so it runs through them pretty quick. We have a steve's carts tree farm and PLENTY of saplings but I'm really bad with piping that stuff... Also I have 12 stills converting biomass into biofuel which is what I wanted to see if those would be enough to get our biomass tank full again if they keep the boiler full. I just went and checked the boiler and it's full on biofuel

Never mind, figured out the issue. It just has to heat up enough to not consume as much. SWEET.

 

[Hydra]

The amount of fuel consumes is fully dependant on the size of the boiler, not the amount of engines. If you use 36 commercial or just 1 on a single 36 HP boiler, it will still use the same amount of fuel. Also boilers use a LOT more fuel when they are cold, so untill they've heated up make sure you have plenty. At 20 degrees a 36HP boiler will consume a bucket of biofuel every 11 seconds. At full heat that's only one every 101 seconds. So a single still (produces a bucket every 84 seconds or so) can easily keep up with that.

So unless you have atleast 400 buckets of biofuel stored you probably should not start up that boiler.

 

[Setari]

It's already started. It's been going for a couple RL days now lol. It's in the 200 degrees or higher range now, left my game sitting open for awhile.

 

[Hydra]

It takes over 4 hours in-game for it to reach max temp IIRC.

 

[Zelfana]

Doesn't sound like you have enough fuel for it which then means you shouldn't use a boiler and instead just use basic engines. Assuming you're correct about it having been running for days. Is it constantly loaded by a chunk loader?

Btw, you should have the water supplied by an Aqueous Accumulator directly under the boiler with no pipes in between instead of that unnecessarily complicated pipe going from what I assume is Aqueous Accumulator between the water sources. And two water source blocks are enough.

 

[Setari]

The boiler is actually fine now guys, seriously. I didn't say it took DAYS IRL to heat up, I just said I've had it running for a couple days. It did actually take quite awhile for it to heat up but it's running like a dream now, lol.

And yes, we have a chunk loader in our house and the boiler is directly under our house. It's being chunk loaded for sure.

 

[neeneko]

What pipes are you using off the boiler?
gold are 40 steam and must stay seperated.
Unpowered Liqiducts are ~80 steam and can be combined
Powered liquiducts are ~160 steam and can be combined.

Do you know if this is documented anywhere?
I have seen a rather wide range of numbers quoted for how much steam liqiducts transport, with some people claiming it as high as ~500.

Also, when you say 'powered', do you mean having a redstone signal on every single section of duct?