(solved) Optimizing Fuel Generators not working

[Tam]

Hey all,

So i've run into a little issue here where my calculations dont match up with the ingame result.
To explain:

I've built an Oil extractor on a Pure crude node and overclocked it to 125% generating 300m3 of Crude.

Next i hooked up 5 refineries making fuel. Now each takes 60m3 crude to make 40m3 fuel. So that should work a treat.

Following that ive hooked up 14 fuel generators. Each generator requires 15m3 fuel to run. 13 generators are running on 100% requiring 195m3 fuel.

The 14th generator i wanted to underclock to require the remaining 5m3 of fuel to balance it out.

So i assumed putting it on 33% would do the trick, and thats where things start to get odd. At 33% the generator consumes not 5m3 of fuel but 6.4m3. I dialed it back to 25% where it does use only 5m3.

Everything is running smoothly, power is being generated. However, i am overproducing fuel and my refineries are almost constantly yellow for not being able to output into the full pipeline.

I'm the first to admit that im not a mathematical genius. But this feels off to me. Anyone with some pointers as to what im doing wrong?

- Tam

[War Wizard Grymzst]

I would have to join your game and look at your setup to tell you what may or may not be right/wrong.

[Verios44]

This is the same problem you would have with coal.

Unless you actually consume 100% of the power made, the production line will not need to work at 100%.

If you look at your fuel gens, you can see its efficiency. In a power building that has full resources, this percentage isnt how well its using the resources, but how often it needs to make power.

Simply put, power generators can idle.

So what you discribed is normal behavior.

[Tam]

I really feel daft right about now. Verios hit the nail on the head there. Can't produce more than you need/can store. Same principle with everything you're crafting/generating in this game.
Thanks for the help <3

[Verios44]

Originally posted by Tam:

I really feel daft right about now. Verios hit the nail on the head there. Can't produce more than you need/can store. Same principle with everything you're crafting/generating in this game.
Thanks for the help <3

Its fine :) Thats why when I answer these type of things I like to discribe it as idling.

Also, make sure what you use to make power is seperated from any resource production. The resin you make for example is hard to reliably use I mean.

[Tam]

Originally posted by Verios44:

Originally posted by Tam:

I really feel daft right about now. Verios hit the nail on the head there. Can't produce more than you need/can store. Same principle with everything you're crafting/generating in this game.
Thanks for the help <3

Its fine :) Thats why when I answer these type of things I like to discribe it as idling.

Also, make sure what you use to make power is seperated from any resource production. The resin you make for example is hard to reliably use I mean.

Ive got the alternative recipe poly+water = plastic :) so im running that not too far away from the whole monstrosity ive built

[Evilsod]

This is why I knew it was going to cause me problems, linking my plastic/rubber production to my fuel generators. I'm at that point now where my industrial buffer is full and it's slowing my resource production down. Flushing it seems like such a waste.
I need to start siphoning it off to something else to use the excess, but then if the power usage increases again I could start having supply problems without micromanaging it...

In hindsight, I think the best would have been to separate them out completely and go direct to fuel on one oil patch, and use the heavy oil on this one for another product.

If you have them separated already, then it isn't really a problem, though it will make for some fluctuations in power draw when the foundries kick in.

[Tam]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

This is why I knew it was going to cause me problems, linking my plastic/rubber production to my fuel generators. I'm at that point now where my industrial buffer is full and it's slowing my resource production down. Flushing it seems like such a waste.
I need to start siphoning it off to something else to use the excess, but then if the power usage increases again I could start having supply problems without micromanaging it...

In hindsight, I think the best would have been to separate them out completely and go direct to fuel on one oil patch, and use the heavy oil on this one for another product.

If you have them separated already, then it isn't really a problem, though it will make for some fluctuations in power draw when the foundries kick in.

You could try packaging the excess fuel (using plastic that you generate) and storing the packaged fuel in a container farm?

[Evilsod]

Originally posted by Tam:

You could try packaging the excess fuel (using plastic that you generate) and storing the packaged fuel in a container farm?

That just delays the problem, not fixes it ^^

I have considered that though. I have a biofuel producer too, but I've never created the containers to actually make use of it ><

[Tam]

Originally posted by Tam:

You could try packaging the excess fuel (using plastic that you generate) and storing the packaged fuel in a container farm?

or AWESOME SINK it all :D

[Space]

https://questions.satisfactorygame.com/post/5e4400d8547f65e3fb77c97b

"An overflow setting has been added to the Smart & Programmable Splitter on the Experimental version 0.3.4.6 - Build 120739. Hope you all will like it, for further feedback please make a new post!"

Do whatever till that.

[Evilsod]

Er, we have that setting already. Is that an old update or something?

Pretty sure he meant a fluid overflow though.
Adding something like a relief valve (a third output only) to fluid buffers would be pretty good for that. That way any excess that flows into a buffer would automatically flow out into that pipe and it can't be activated any other way.

[Verios44]

Originally posted by Evilsod:

Er, we have that setting already. Is that an old update or something?

Pretty sure he meant a fluid overflow though.
Adding something like a relief valve (a third output only) to fluid buffers would be pretty good for that. That way any excess that flows into a buffer would automatically flow out into that pipe and it can't be activated any other way.

No logic buildings like smart or programmable splitters exist for fluids yet.

And yea it would be nice to have an Awesome sink that has a fluid input.

You can package the fluid and sink it, but that isnt as simple as it aounds. Plus the plastic use can rise fast.

[Mister Fabulous]

You need to deal with the overflow of heavy oil residue if you're connecting fuel production to plastic/rubber production. Yes you can buffer it, but you have to check in occasionally and empty it to keep production constant. Yes you can package then sink the excess whatever (residue/fuel), but now you need to hook up container production taking away from your plastic occasionally and make sure it can handle the excess. Not a big deal, but not really something I like to do personally. You still need a way to control the overflow without taking away for your fuel production.

I go from residue to something to sink. At the moment, that's petroleum coke.

Here's my setup. I don't have alternates and haven't revisited my oil production for a while, so it's sat like this for quite some time.

The layout is a little different in each case, but I have following setup in 2 places:
600 oil (2 fields clocked to 300 output) goes to 20 refineries, 10 making plastic, 10 making rubber with each set of 10 being fed by one oil pump. All the heavy oil residue goes into a single horizontal pipe with a pump in the middle of the 20 refineries and a pump at the end of the 20 refineries (10 refinery outputs -> pump -> 10 refinery outputs -> pump). Flow on the second pump is 300. If I didn't have both, the refineries a the dead-end would back up because of the "slooshing" that is modeled in the pipes.

That single pipe goes to 5 refineries making fuel. There is an overflow pipe configuration at the end of those 5 refineries that is an upside-down U shaped pipe. It is 3 stackable pipe junctions high. It needs to be this high otherwise fluid will occasionally spill over when it shouldn't I guess because of how they model back pressure. Here is a pic of that setup past the pump in the middle of the 20 refineries I described: https://imgur.com/UTFEbRg It's a big-assed U just because I had the rubber/plastic outputs running under the pipe off-screen.

The overflow pipe goes to 8 refineries making petroleum coke that is fed to 2 sinks with mk. 4 belts since production of it is sporadic and unreliable based on my power consumption and I'm not doing aluminum production here. 8 is overkill, but it's set up to handle the max possible needed (7.5 to handle 300 flow of residue) if my power consumption hit the floor. Say you build 3 or 4 nuke plants when you're at that point, overall demand drops severely and you now need the extra refineries for the overflow.

Here's a pic to the overflow pipe from the 2nd setup: https://imgur.com/LqPV6RJ Ignore the junction on the right. It's not connected to anything and was a leftover when I started this.

This has been running over 20 hours with a power consumption of around 80% and much longer than that before I built more stuff at around 50%. After the initial pipe flush once everything was set up, nothing backs up.

[Dirty Harry]

very nice,, going to try that, and may also do polymer resin, to send the tickets