Railcraft boiler question

[joseff amador]

Hi all.

When you first turn on a boiler, it needs to "warm up" which consumes 8x more fuel than normal.

At what temperature is the "warmup" period over (and back to normal fuel consumption)?

 

[ItharianEngineering]

It is percentage based, each fuel type has a heat value and the steam boiler uses a certain amount of fuel every tick based on the percentage of heat it is from max, it is also based on the size and type of boiler too obviously. So really it will only use fuel with max efficiency at full heat, but is always improving on how it uses the fuel as it heats up.

 

[Celestialphoenix]

The initial warmup period is over at 100C, at which point you'll start getting steam, and a return on your fuel/energy.
The boiler will continue to gain heat and fuel efficiency until its at max heat (LP 500C, HP 1000C).

 

[whythisname]

I have 3 Peat farms and even though they can get a (large LP) Boiler up to 120-130C they can't get past that mark on their own. However, when you add Charcoal or something to get to 500C you can see fuel efficiency increase and I'm pretty sure the 3 Peat farms will keep it running once it hits 500C. On their own they never would've reached that temperature though.

So to get energy you have to go to 100C, which might be enough for your needs, but that doesn't mean it'll heat up beyond that point on its own. For me it's mostly in those last 100C where I see fuel efficiency climb up pretty quickly, so I'm pretty sure you just want to fuel a boiler till max temp because those last degrees are what makes the most difference.

 

[Vovk]

3 peat bogs keep a 36H boiler running forever.

however you need to let them sit and build up peat, a little over 1 full double chest of peat is required to do a cold start.

 

[AliasXNeo]

Base Fuel Usage Per Tick (base) = ( (6.4 - numTanks * 0.08) / ( 16 LP or 8 HP ) ) * numTanks
Heat Adjust Fuel Usage Per Tick = base + base * (8 - 8 * heat%)

Taken off the RC wiki. Add the base into the heat adjust and you can see how the fuel usage changes with the boiler heating up.

 

[Milaha]

This is the equation posted to the railcraft wiki.

Heat Adjust Fuel Usage Per Tick = base + base * (8 - 8 * heat%)

Using that formula at 0 degrees you are actually using 9x fuel consumption.

Here is a quick breakdown of some numbers for HP boilers that cap out at 1000. (the fraction heated numbers are the same for both though so a LP boiler at 250 will be the same as a HP at 500, as both are halfway heated)

100 - start producing steam - 8.2 x fuel consumption
250 - 1/4 heated - 7x fuel consumption
500 - 1/2 heated - 5x fuel consumption
750 - 3/4 heated - 3x fuel consumption
1000 - fully heated - 1x fuel consumption.

From this we can obviously see that even at 3/4 of the way heated we are using huge amounts of fuel relative to what we will eventually need. When you go to start a boiler it is strongly in your best interest to have a bunch of spare fuel on hand to keep it going full bore till you hit max heat. Get your fuel production up first, and let it run a while before you start the boiler. If you are doing a large boiler (or even worse a large HP boiler) you are going to want a LOT of fuel on hand.

It is worth noting based on the other equation posted to the wiki (pasted below) both the high and low pressure boilers obtain the same fuel efficiency per steam at max heat (HP use twice the fuel, but produce twice the steam). Startup costs and space usage should be the factors you contemplate when deciding which to use.

Base Fuel Usage Per Tick (base) = ( (6.4 - numTanks * 0.08) / ( 16 LP or 8 HP ) ) * numTanks

and fkit, since I am doing math, base heat use per 10 steam (2 MJ): (fuel is consumed and steam is generated each tick ofc)

1 tank (1x1 firebox): .395 heat
12 tanks (2x2 firebox max): .34 heat ~14% reduction
36 tanks (3x3 firebox max): .24 heat ~40% reduction.

EDIT: AliasXNeo posted while I was writing it up with the equations, still leaving this up since it gives a few numbers for quick reference and analysis.