How to build proper power supply for day/night cycle?

[Sleipnir]

Hi, just started to play the game - so still learning the very basics.

I use a combination of steam as my main power source during the day - but at night, I need to get another boiler running to compensate the lack of solar power (I don't have any tech to store excess power yet).

What I would like to do is to automatically start that second boiler once it gets dark, however I don't really know how that can be done.

Can anyone help me out? What would a basic infrastructure look like that switches certain buildings on/off depending on the time of day?

[Fel]

Just use more boilers all the time, they only consume fuel when generating steam and steam engines only consume as much steam as they need to provide for the current energy demands.
No matter how many boilers and steam engines you put down it will only use the same amount of coal to make the needed energy.
Because solar power is used first before completing with steam engines it already throttles the steam engines during the day (less fuel consumption) and goes up as the steam engines lose power.

Of course you could build your own daylight sensor with a pump connected to a single solar pannel (all of that not connected to your main power grid of course) and use a power switch to cut the connecting power lines to the extra steam engines during the day, it's always fun to do a bit of circuit network after all, but it is not required for your problem so it's just if you want to have fun with circuit network stuff.

[impetus_maximus]

there are 25000 ticks (60 ticks per second) in a full day/night cycle in Factorio.
https://wiki.factorio.com/Time

here is a timer you can use to tell what time it is. it will output time as a 'T' signal of 1-25000. if you set it up at night with no sun power you can get repeatable results. if you want the timer to keep it's own time (which i HIGHLY recommend) in the event of brown/blackouts only connect the circuit network and keep the power isolated to itself.

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i came up with that when an update of Factorio had the lights turning on too late, and turned off too early. that has since been patched.

you could alternatively use an SR latch connected to an accumilator to switch on your steam when below a threshold, then turn off above another threshold. let me know if your interested in such a system.

[>//The_FALCON]

uh, you should have a thing that stores excess power, or at least have access to it since you can build solar panels. It's called a storage tank. It stores fluids and gases, like steam.

[AlexMBrennan]

uh, you should have a thing that stores excess power, or at least have access to it since you can build solar panels. It's called a storage tank. It stores fluids and gases, like steam.

Why do we always have to go over the same bad ideas?

No, storage tanks cannot be used to "store" electricity produced by solar panels because you do not have any way to turn electricity into steam. That would require some kind of electric boiler which is coincidentally not found in the game.

Therefore, a storage tank only allows you to burn coal now and use the resulting steam at a later time which is completely useless, while massively increasing the amount of space you need (one steel chest full of coal is equivalent to 9.6GJ). Just play normally and burn coal on demand.

The only legit use for storage tanks in power production is nuclear power because reactors consume fuel regardless of demand so you need to be able to store one cycle's worth of steam to avoid wasting fuel.

[Pirazel]

And thats why you switch to solar only after you have batteries.

[MaddogDino]

Escrito originalmente por Pirazel:

And thats why you switch to solar only after you have batteries.

Switching to solar should be done before accumulators. Start laying down solar panels as soon as you can (if going Solar). The steam engines get you through the night and the solar kicks in during the day. Aim to have enough solar panels down to prevent the steam firing up for support during the day. Then you get accumulators and lay them down until you get enough storage to get through the night. It's a simple transition really.
As for needing power storage for Nuclear, I don't find that to be true. As long as you have fuel, you have power. Storing steram is senseless IMHO.

[Fel]

Well, for nuclear it's a bit different since it will continue to consume fuel no matter what your electricity consumption is, so it will produce that extra heat/steam no matter if you have a use for it or not.
So storing the excess and not wasting too much fuel can be a good thing is you are only using a portion of your production.

On the other hand you also have to worry about the heat falling off too much is there is no fuel for a long time, which wastes fuel for heating it back to usable levels, so it's hard to make a perfect system but nuclear reactors are not as simple as boilers or solar+accumulators if you want to make it efficient.

[gGeorg]

You need to build up heat when power plant is fresh new. However, Heat dont void. What you see as later fall, is conversion to steam when space is available.

To the topic, combination of solar for day, then steam for night is fine.
Usage of bateries as storage space is inneficient. As someone said, storage tank is better.
1 storage tank of steam equals about 350 charged batteries. Heap of material differrence is obvious.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

is there no loss of steam in the tank?

[impetus_maximus]

Escrito originalmente por TheDeadlyShoe:

is there no loss of steam in the tank?

the tanks don't act realistic in factorio. there is no heat loss storing steam.

[Icemourn]

I would build enough boilers and steam engines to power your base during the night.

Your steam engines will automatically reduce their power output if your solar panels can handle energy demands during the day.

[corisai]

Escrito originalmente por gGeorg:

Usage of bateries as storage space is inneficient. As someone said, storage tank is better.
1 storage tank of steam equals about 350 charged batteries. Heap of material differrence is obvious.

You can't use storage tanks in role of batteries as you lack any way to turn electricity from solars into steam.

And AFAIK they still don't fixed liquid performance losses while batteries&solars still work as single entity, so for mega-bases solars&batteries >> nuclear >> steam.

Building large powerplant with steam engines & some reserve of coal is best solution. Because of bitters - you will sooner or later run into lack of power to feed your lasers. Some work with logic circuits will allow you to use such reserve power plant even with pure solar.

[THE kilroy]

@op since you say you are a newer player, the solution is to make more boilers and steam engines(and fuel) than you need, steam engines will only consume fuel when there is a demand for power.

So if you have solar panels and no accumulators (power grid batteries) the panels will produce power and the steam will only produce if needed.

If you decide to have some accumulators then they will add demand. You can use a circuit setup to only turn on steam when the charge is low enough, but thats a different topic

If you want easy, just make more steam power, and place solar panels to reduce fuel consumption in the day.