Setting up a boiler

[RandomMoped]

So I just finished building my solid fueled high pressure boiler, yay!
http://i.imgur.com/CPlnyR6.png
But I've never actually set up a boiler, and they kinda scare me so before I start it up had a few questions
1. How much heat do I need to start up the boiler?
2. If I were to power it with charcoal, how much charcoal would i need to constantly keep it running?
3. Would an MFR tree farm with no upgrades and without fertilizer be able to keep up with it?

Edit: Sorry I think I worded my first question wrong, I meant to ask how much heat you need to heat it up to it's maximum efficiency stage.

 

[giesergast]

1. 100 supply water!!
2donno
3.and the answer is no i think two would be enough

 

[BlackFire]

1. It will start producing steam at 100 degrees Celsius
2. Hmmm, I have that written down somewhere...
3. without fertilizer no, the trees would take too long to grow. If you made it large, it would work. That's why so many people prefer Steves Cart's 2 tree farms.

 

[GPuzzle]

They need quite a lot of heat.
An MFR treefarm with no fertilizer may not be able to power it - the fertilizer from IC2 in a simple doubling chain (scrap+1 fertilizer = 2 fertilizers, cyclic assembler or fabricator help a lot with it) is going to be helpful.
Charcoal isn't the most powerful, planks in a sawmill get 0,2k extra heat with less energy in comparison to burning charcoal in a furnace.

 

[gattsuru]

1. How much heat do I need to start up the boiler?

A 27-LP boiler will take 3,696,000 heat units (1155 coal) to bring to full temperature over a period of two hours, while an equivalent HP boiler will take 15,110,400 heat units (or 4800 coal) to warm up over a period of 4 hours.

2. If I were to power it with charcoal, how much charcoal would i need to constantly keep it running?

If constantly running (rather than pulsed), the 27LP will take 515,200 HU / hour, while the 27-HP requires about twice that. This is equivalent to 322 charcoal and hour for the LP, and 644 per hour for the HP.

 

[gusmahler]

The website: http://calculator.towerofawesome.org/ will perform these calculations for you.

Gattsuru's calculations were for coal, not charcoal.

For charcoal: a 27 LP boiler will use 2309 charcoal in 1 hour and 54 minutes to heat up to 1000 and then use 322 charcoal per hour.

A 27 HP boiler will use 9444 charcoal in 3 hours, 52 minutes to heat up to 1000, then use 644 charcoal per hour.

But, as GPuzzle points out, planks through a sawmill is more efficient then turning logs into charcoal.

 

[Omicron]

Unless you use coke ovens and also burn the resulting creosote oil in a liquid fuel boiler.

It will take a lot of coke ovens, but it is possible and produces the most energy possible. Some people dig doing the highest efficiency (But okay, then you wouldn't build HP boilers.)

 

[Shakie666]

A word of advice: if you're running your boiler for a long time, it may be worth making another 9 HP boiler blocks (whatever they're called) for a 36hp boiler, it'll be more efficient in the long run.

Without fertiliser, an 11x11 MFR tree farm with 2x2 trees will keep several 36hp boilers going. Takes up more room than a SC farm, but is a lot cheaper. You might want to build 2 harvesters though for increased wood chopping speed.

 

[RedBoss]

Ever since watching a few vids from CovertJaguar, I've wanted to use smaller boilers for focused tasks. I think I'll use an MFR tree farm for some AE support and MPS charging

 

[Forecaster]

For charcoal: a 27 LP boiler will use 2309 charcoal in 1 hour and 54 minutes to heat up to 1000 and then use 322 charcoal per hour.

A Low Pressure boiler's max temperature is 500 degrees, not 1000.

 

[Riuga]

So I just finished building my solid fueled high pressure boiler, yay!
http://i.imgur.com/CPlnyR6.png
But I've never actually set up a boiler, and they kinda scare me so before I start it up had a few questions
1. How much heat do I need to start up the boiler?
2. If I were to power it with charcoal, how much charcoal would i need to constantly keep it running?
3. Would an MFR tree farm with no upgrades and without fertilizer be able to keep up with it?

Edit: Sorry I think I worded my first question wrong, I meant to ask how much heat you need to heat it up to it's maximum efficiency stage.

100 C until steam flows 1000 C max

1 every 106 ticks / 5 secs at 1000 C

I wouldn't say yes.

 

[Zarkov]

I typically use silver upgrades in my MFR tree farms, resulting in a 15 x 15 farm area. That can provide enough charcoal for 5 max size HP boilers without any fertilizer. Using fertilizer (one maxed out fertilizer block), it's ~9 boilers instead.

I don't know if it matters much, but I usually put torches with three blocks between in the tree farm.

 

[Riuga]

I typically use silver upgrades in my MFR tree farms, resulting in a 15 x 15 farm area. That can provide enough charcoal for 5 max size HP boilers without any fertilizer. Using fertilizer (one maxed out fertilizer block), it's ~9 boilers instead.

I don't know if it matters much, but I usually put torches with three blocks between in the tree farm.

trees don't grow naturally in total darkness (night) so that does enhance it. You should space out the light source every ~14~ blocks.

 

[WayofTime]

trees don't grow naturally in total darkness (night) so that does enhance it. You should space out the light source every ~14~ blocks.

When using torches in a packed environment, at least when doing it manually, I do it in a grid so that each sapling has a torch right next to it. That said, since the trees will be harvested right away it doesn't really matter if the sapling has light all the time, as long as it has at least a light level of 9 or else it will be uprooted on a block update.

 

[KingTriaxx]

My suggestion is to use a stack or so of coal coke to start the heating process. It significantly cuts down on the heating time and cost.

 

[Staxed]

My suggestion is to use a stack or so of coal coke to start the heating process. It significantly cuts down on the heating time and cost.

This right here is an excellent plan, I use a stack of coal coke blocks to help start each boiler...it's amazing how much it helps boost the process of heating.

 

[gusmahler]

My suggestion is to use a stack or so of coal coke to start the heating process. It significantly cuts down on the heating time and cost.

It cuts down on cost, but doesn't change the time at all.