Nuclear reactors and heat and pipes (17.69 factorio)

[Z0MBE]

1 pipes are weird and I've noticed they don't seem to work too well or will get stuck, and it bugs me so much -
2 heat doesn't travel fast and often the heat pipes themselves act as insulators more than anythihng
3 I have like literally 20 reactors attached to one another and they can barely heat this modded heat exchanger*consumption 400* (btw I have literally like 200-300 hours experience running and automating reactors) - my main issue is that the heat exchangers won't work - like the reactor is getting hotter but the end of the heat pipes all stay 500 no matter what, even having like 6 reactors at the ends that don't even contact heat pipes

[THE kilroy]

It's hard for me to tell exactly what you are saying/asking. Ill keep in mind you have lots of experience specifically with reactor tech.

You mention a moded heat exchanger, perhaps the same mod intends for you to use a different tier of heatpipe. And moves the vanilla heatpipe to a different use. Potentially your mod makes that heat exchanger consume alot more heat than vanilla?

Could you have a ghosted heat pipe somewhere cutting you off?

[Warlord]

Yes, you say you have experience with reactors, but you seem to also be expressing ignorance of how heat and reactors work. That, or I am unable to picture your setup based on your description. I'd like some more info from you on what the problem is. How long are the heat pipes?

As for the reason heat pipes are only about 500C is because there is a magic cutoff point. no heat exchangers in vanilla will convert heat to steam until they are at 500 or higher. so, if you have an exchanger on the line they will start consuming all heat above 500C in them to make steam. this causes a drain in all the heat in nearby pipes, down to 500C.

In vanilla, if you have any heat pipes at the ends that are higher than 500C, then you are wasting heat. If you have any at 500C exactly, then some exchangers may not be working half the time (or much at all). It's hard to get a precise balance, as heat pipes lose heat naturally in them as well, so any length of pipe will throw off the exact 4:1 exchangers:reactor ratio.

Yes, I just tech-splained to you. I guess I can't really do much more until we see the info on what kind of modded heat exchanger you are using, whether you must use modded pipes as well, etc etc.

[Hedning]

Originally posted by Warlord:

In vanilla, if you have any heat pipes at the ends that are higher than 500C, then you are wasting heat. If you have any at 500C exactly, then some exchangers may not be working half the time (or much at all). It's hard to get a precise balance, as heat pipes lose heat naturally in them as well, so any length of pipe will throw off the exact 4:1 exchangers:reactor ratio.

What are you on about? You only lose heat if your reactor gets to 1000 and heat pipes don't gradually cool down on their own.

[Jupiter3927]

The heat will travel much faster through your pipes if you have at least 2 tiles for pipes.
A single pipe is slow.
Two pipes in parallel transfer heat much faster.

Also I tested the heat pipes and they are perfect insulators.
Heat will only go into a water heater or another pipe.
You can delete heat by removing pipes.

[Z0MBE]

Originally posted by Warlord:

Yes, you say you have experience with reactors, but you seem to also be expressing ignorance of how heat and reactors work. That, or I am unable to picture your setup based on your description. I'd like some more info from you on what the problem is. How long are the heat pipes?

As for the reason heat pipes are only about 500C is because there is a magic cutoff point. no heat exchangers in vanilla will convert heat to steam until they are at 500 or higher. so, if you have an exchanger on the line they will start consuming all heat above 500C in them to make steam. this causes a drain in all the heat in nearby pipes, down to 500C.

In vanilla, if you have any heat pipes at the ends that are higher than 500C, then you are wasting heat. If you have any at 500C exactly, then some exchangers may not be working half the time (or much at all). It's hard to get a precise balance, as heat pipes lose heat naturally in them as well, so any length of pipe will throw off the exact 4:1 exchangers:reactor ratio.

Yes, I just tech-splained to you. I guess I can't really do much more until we see the info on what kind of modded heat exchanger you are using, whether you must use modded pipes as well, etc etc.

I think I may not respond to you.

[Z0MBE]

Originally posted by THE kilroy:

It's hard for me to tell exactly what you are saying/asking. Ill keep in mind you have lots of experience specifically with reactor tech.

You mention a moded heat exchanger, perhaps the same mod intends for you to use a different tier of heatpipe. And moves the vanilla heatpipe to a different use. Potentially your mod makes that heat exchanger consume alot more heat than vanilla?

Could you have a ghosted heat pipe somewhere cutting you off?

I don't know, I rebuilt the entire thing with 2x2 heat sinks and now im mad at the pipes, basically it's like, the heat is working how I wanted, mind you all Im using .17 so maybe the heat pipes are broken or work incorrectly from .18 on-
My new issue is that heat exchangers won't release steam to a modded pipe that isn't filled yet and this steam which is stored (last checked there is 40k steam in one tank) won't seem to go into the rest of the turbines
exchangers blink "no fuel" still even though the heat of the reactor is well above the heat (sooo yea back to the heat transfer ugh nvm)

[Hedning]

Seems if you have so many different issues with a mod it may not be worth playing, or you need someone who is familiar with the mod to ask for help.

[Warlord]

Originally posted by Hedning:

Originally posted by Warlord:

In vanilla, if you have any heat pipes at the ends that are higher than 500C, then you are wasting heat. If you have any at 500C exactly, then some exchangers may not be working half the time (or much at all). It's hard to get a precise balance, as heat pipes lose heat naturally in them as well, so any length of pipe will throw off the exact 4:1 exchangers:reactor ratio.

What are you on about? You only lose heat if your reactor gets to 1000 and heat pipes don't gradually cool down on their own.

Sorry, I guess I zoned out. heat pipes don't lose pipes, but at long enough can fail to transfer heat along them, which can result in waste if the reactors get to 1000C while the ends stay below 500. I think this mostly happens if the pipes are REALLY long. Not sure how I forgot about that.

Originally posted by mccafferty.max:

Originally posted by Warlord:

snip

I think I may not respond to you.

Strange that you did then. I really do want to help though. *shrug*

[AlexMBrennan]

Would it kill you to disclose which mod is causing all of your problems? How do expect us to help if you don't give us any relevant information?

[Z0MBE]

My problem ended up being I didn't realize I was using the mk1 reactor instead of the mk2

[Hedning]

So basically the hint given to you in the first reply:

Originally posted by THE kilroy:

You mention a moded heat exchanger, perhaps the same mod intends for you to use a different tier of heatpipe.