how do you connect 8 coal plants to 3 water pumps?

[Arawn]

Hello

Help?

:(

[Suzaku]

The easiest way is to put a single pipe running along the length of all 8 generators (preferably simply placed in a line), then have the water from the 3 extractors come in from multiple points along the pipe. For example, have 1 extractor connect from the left, 1 from the right, and the third one connect somewhere in the middle. This allows you to feed the 360 water/min you need to run the 8 generators without going over the 300 fluid/min maximum flow rate of mk1 pipes because some of the water gets used up before it ever reaches a critical point.

[helmey112]

https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Coal_Generator

Scroll down to the end, there is a picture for setups.

[God of Snacks]

^ Yeah that's the best way with mark 1 pipes. You can also be lazy and just connect 1 water pump to 2 coal plants. However we all know alot of us love that OCD efficiency

[Arawn]

Oo

https://satisfactory.fandom.com/wiki/Coal_Generator?file=Coal_Generator_Schematic.png

You can put 3 pumps on the first 3 plants. Wow

[Arawn]

So if I understand well the diagram number 1 and your explanations, I must deploy 3 pipelines. 1 on the left, 1 in the middle and 1 on the right on one line? On mk1.

[Arawn]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

The easiest way is to put a single pipe running along the length of all 8 generators (preferably simply placed in a line), then have the water from the 3 extractors come in from multiple points along the pipe. For example, have 1 extractor connect from the left, 1 from the right, and the third one connect somewhere in the middle. This allows you to feed the 360 water/min you need to run the 8 generators without going over the 300 fluid/min maximum flow rate of mk1 pipes because some of the water gets used up before it ever reaches a critical point.

Thank you :)

[Suzaku]

Yes. The logistics problem you're trying to solve is "How to feed 360 water/min into a pipe that only handles 300/min".

By having the water enter at multiple points along the pipe, some of it can get used up by the generators before it all meets, which means you never have more than 300 fluid/min at any point in the pipe.

[helmey112]

And for inspiration:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2190074320

[Arawn]

Originally posted by Suzaku:

Yes. The logistics problem you're trying to solve is "How to feed 360 water/min into a pipe that only handles 300/min".

By having the water enter at multiple points along the pipe, some of it can get used up by the generators before it all meets, which means you never have more than 300 fluid/min at any point in the pipe.

This is exactly the problem I couldn't solve, until now I was using 4 pumps for 6 plants...It was not efficient at all.

I'm going to change everything and do what you advised. Thanks :)

There are so many things to understand.

[Arawn]

Originally posted by helmey112:

And for inspiration:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2190074320

This installation is incredible. Well done engineer.

[helmey112]

Originally posted by Arawn:

This installation is incredible. Well done engineer.

Thx. You are welcome.

[kLuns]

Originally posted by God of Snacks:

^ Yeah that's the best way with mark 1 pipes. You can also be lazy and just connect 1 water pump to 2 coal plants. However we all know alot of us love that OCD efficiency

I have 48 water extractors for 48 generators in 8 pipes :) only 4,2 MW lost on the water for every generator

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by kLuns:

Originally posted by God of Snacks:

^ Yeah that's the best way with mark 1 pipes. You can also be lazy and just connect 1 water pump to 2 coal plants. However we all know alot of us love that OCD efficiency

I have 48 water extractors for 48 generators in 8 pipes :) only 4,2 MW lost on the water for every generator

You can eliminate the inefficiency with underclocking. There's effectively no limit to resources, so additional buildings aren't technically inefficient; one water extractor at 75% feeding 2 coal generators works perfectly well, thank you.

I don't care if you disagree; The numbers add up right, so this is how I tell my brain it works, so it lets me get away with it.

[Lil Puppy]

You can do this infinitely as long as you continue to use the 8:3 ratio for pipe placements.
16:6, 32:12, 64:24, etc.
There are other configurations you can do as well but this is the most well known and documented. And since mark I pipes don't suffer from the floating point problem of mark II pipes, it's also more stable. It also perfectly uses a single 120 node of coal and 3 normal water extractors so the math is really easy.
15 coal * 8 = 120 pure node, 45 water * 8 = 360 water (3 water extractors)

Another configuration is 240 water in one side, 120 in the other side so you don't have to have 3 different input points for water.

8 generators take water in this way for 8:3
360 water to push through a 300 max line:

120 Water input here
1st: -45 (75 left)
2nd: -45 (30 left)
3rd: -45 (0 left)
4th: -45 (15 left)
120 Water input here gets split to both sides for 60 each
5th: -45 (15 left)
6th: -45 (0 left)
7th: -45 (30 left)
8th: -45 (75 left)
120 Water input here

2:1 water split goes like this for 8:3

240 Water input here
1st: -45 (195 left)
2nd: -45 (150 left)
3rd: -45 (105 left)
4th: -45 (60 left)
5th: -45 (15 left)
6th: -45 (0 left)
7th: -45 (30 left)
8th: -45 (75 left)
120 Water input here

The smaller the number, the longer that one takes to become stable if you don't prefill the pipes before turning the system on.
We like to do perfect math for some systems like coal because it's simple, but you can shove 300 in each side of a mark I pipe if you want to to power 13.33~ coal power generators, do this 3 times and you get a 40th generator on the extra water but you'll end up with 15 water extractors for 40 generators, which is still 8:3.

[DrNewcenstein]

2 groups of 4 coal generators back to back with water pipes split down the middle, feeding 4 on each side. Spread them out enough to get splitters in there for the coal, 1 splitter per generator.
Water extractors feeding both ends of the row. Don't connect them to the main grid until the belts are stopped and the tanks are full of water.