Are fuel generators worth it?

[InvertedSphere]

With pipes only being able to carry 300m3/min, I can only make 13 fuel generators per overclocked oil node @ 300 m3/min, which gives 1,950MW, minus the power used for the oil extractor and refineries for fuel. I set up 24 coal generators using 300 coal/min (I didn't do the math on this one, but it's never stopped working) producing 1,800MW, minus the power used for miners & water extractors. I was hoping that the fuel generators would give a lot more power than they do.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

They're also useful for byproducts. I'm at a point where my power is just sufficient for my current base, but I'm currently sinking a ton of wasted byproducts from my refineries. When I upgrade the oil portion of my factory, I'll have 8 refineries making plastic, 8 making rubber, 8 making fuel for 10 fuel generators, and 8 more refineries making coke for a sink. (not my design, but I can link it if asked). So, I'll be making a more productive and efficient plastic/rubber factory that provides a bunch of excess power. Coal is used for power and also required for steel..

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

Originally posted by kmarkopl:

Originally posted by Cake for Mumm-Ra:

and 8 more refineries making coke for a sink.

You will have to change that later.
You will need coke for Alnuminum scrap production, witch then will be used for Aluminum ingots.

Exactly. It's just waste material until the next phase. But when I get there, I'll already have production in action.

[Caz]

As things currently stand, fuel gens are only useful for making sure fluid doesn't back up or bottleneck your production. Which is unfortunate since that means coal is the "go to" power source until geothermal (or nuclear if you don't mind dealing with the waste).

[InvertedSphere]

I was considering going all out on coal power where there are 4 nodes next to each other and that big pool of water in front of them, but then I thought that they put them by water on purpose and I'll need to combine the two for something else later.

[PEEBO]

just remember to place coal generators below the water source if possible to reduce inline pump power costs do to fight head pressure

[PEEBO]

i agree to use oil generators as backup to coal generators and like a UPS for the water pump system. sucks to set up bio fuel generators to get the water moving

[X-SR71]

a single 300m3/min TURBO FUEL pipe can feed like 30+ generators at 100%.

[Shane]

Me and a few friends have talked about pipes, fluids, etc... we all reckoned on two possibles the first is that the fluid system will probably get a rebalance, and the next is T2 pipes (similiar to T2, T3, belts) might be a possible update. the most logic was steel pipes

[PEEBO]

i still think that tier 2 or 3 power should be solar, using silicon and nickle(my material add), and batteries using lithium and copper, coal and oil are quite good for power but could cause enviromental havoc to the planet, wind farms and all other power systems could use the battery UPS system

[Urban Shaman]

Regular fuel = useful for jetpack and a few generators; use excess heavy oil from plastics / rubber production. Once you unlock turbofuel, it becomes an excellent source of power if you can spare the sulfur. As someone noted, a full turbofuel pipe can support quite the number of generators, providing a lot of extra power.

[InvertedSphere]

I didn't even think about the turbo fuel. And if they add different tier pipes, that could be a really nice power gain. It might be a while before I unlock it, though.