question for end-game bros - arc furnace or blast, for steel?

[VladK02]

Im at a point where I need ~12.333 steel smelters, just to keep various outputs on theoretical maximum. I will probably go to 18 eventually.

Thats a lot of coal. Well, not really, but still annoying, since coal is bought for, in large part, with steel (research modules take a lot of mechanical parts).

Im thinking, what do you guys use?

Blast furnaces, or arc furnaces?

At these quantities, arc furnaces will need probably another full nuclear reactor, more data centers...meaning, more people, more farms, etc., etc....

Is it worth it, re-tooling the economy to arc furnaces?

[Synical]

Arc furnaces are pretty much a straight upgrade. Though the power consumption looks high, T2 blast furnaces essentially consume 7.5MW from their coal input. You could build a coal plant to cover the new electrical demand and still come out using less coal. The steam output is great for desalination too, as all smelting chains use water in some way. The FLOPS requirement is the hard part to fulfill early on, but after a while you'll have plenty of data centers up for other needs.

[Doctor Who]

on a technical level, Blast furnaces take iron ore, limestone and coke and make Iron. The iron is then processed in furnaces (Open Hearth or Arc) to make steel.