Steam engine driving me insane again.

[Matthias]

UPDATE: Figured out the problem, condensors were backwards...

I have a steam engine with 12 turbines hooked up to a boiler, the problem is the boiler gets to 100 and starts producing pressure like normal and the RPS in the turbines shoot up to 5.5 and then slowly goes back to zero because i guess the steam runs out? i though i didn't have enough water to produce steam but someone on reddit told me the fluid level in the boiler should still be sufficient. and yes all the pumps are in the right direction and are turned on. I can't really explain it that well so i would really appriciate it if someone could actually take a look at it and explain what i've done wrong: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2829213285 (it needs to be in the water because it cooled with heat sinks)

[Fox]

Try and reduce the number of turbines. If I remember correctly one boiler can support 6 turbines, but I might be wrong.

[Matthias]

Originally posted by Fox:

Try and reduce the number of turbines. If I remember correctly one boiler can support 6 turbines, but I might be wrong.

Really? someone on reddit told me one boiler can support 16.

[Ra-Ra-Rasputin]

Originally posted by Matthias:

Really? someone on reddit told me one boiler can support 16.

Yeah... "someone on reddit told me" has been the cause of many misconceptions and issues for nearly a decade now.
Asking 4chan for advice has a significantly higher success rate, just to put it out there.

[Matthias]

Originally posted by Ra-Ra-Rasputin:

Originally posted by Matthias:

Really? someone on reddit told me one boiler can support 16.

Yeah... "someone on reddit told me" has been the cause of many misconceptions and issues for nearly a decade now.
Asking 4chan for advice has a significantly higher success rate, just to put it out there.

damn thats wild, guess i'll just redesign the whole thing.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally posted by Fox:

Try and reduce the number of turbines. If I remember correctly one boiler can support 6 turbines, but I might be wrong.

Originally posted by Matthias:

Really? someone on reddit told me one boiler can support 16.

All nonsensical suggestions and most likely from a time when the water to steam ratio was x100 less than what it is now. Some folks still suggest to set boiler fluid volume to 2-3%, which will stall your steam loop if you're running anything more than 12-14 turbines.

I've been running 63 turbines off a single boiler at maximum flowrate of 1.8l/s per turbine. Since it took forever for the steam to propagate through all turbines (in series) I've split it up into 3 banks of 21 turbines with each their own boiler/condensers.

A few general tips:
Set the boiler fluid level to 100%, no matter what folks tell you. It's pretty common seeing old stuff that long has been fixed, being parroted all over the place, since it's easier than doing your own testing to actually find out how stuff works (similar to suggesting to add a coolant tank to the modular engine cooling circuit etc.).

To keep the boiler from exploding, make sure the heat source (reactor or firebox) doesn't put out more than 130° around sawyer and ~150° around the arctic.

Add pumps to the boilers coolant in/outputs and only turn them on if boiler pressure is below 5 AND boiler temperature below 110°. This allows for up to 350l of steam to form (pressure x 70 = steam volume in liters) while keeping the temperature below 110°, which in turn allows for the condenser to have an easier time turning steam back into water.

Make sure you have pumps (large electrical ones) to get steam out of the boiler and add one pump for every turbine. Also pressurize condenser steam input and water return to the boiler by using pumps, small ones should do here.

The condenser WILL put out water, as long as its temperature is below 100°. The number it's putting out is rather small, with the advanced tooltip enabled (check general settings) you can see a negative sign in front of the "Water Out" tooltip, this means the condenser is actively condensing and working as intended.
Same goes for the radiator that should be added to the condenser, add pumps to in and output.

There's no need for any overpressure valves or similar, it's a closed system and will work forever.

[Matthias]

Originally posted by GrumpyOldMan:

Originally posted by Fox:

Try and reduce the number of turbines. If I remember correctly one boiler can support 6 turbines, but I might be wrong.

Originally posted by Matthias:

Really? someone on reddit told me one boiler can support 16.

All nonsensical suggestions and most likely from a time when the water to steam ratio was x100 less than what it is now. Some folks still suggest to set boiler fluid volume to 2-3%, which will stall your steam loop if you're running anything more than 12-14 turbines.

I've been running 63 turbines off a single boiler at maximum flowrate of 1.8l/s per turbine. Since it took forever for the steam to propagate through all turbines (in series) I've split it up into 3 banks of 21 turbines with each their own boiler/condensers.

A few general tips:
Set the boiler fluid level to 100%, no matter what folks tell you. It's pretty common seeing old stuff that long has been fixed, being parroted all over the place, since it's easier than doing your own testing to actually find out how stuff works (similar to suggesting to add a coolant tank to the modular engine cooling circuit etc.).

To keep the boiler from exploding, make sure the heat source (reactor or firebox) doesn't put out more than 130° around sawyer and ~150° around the arctic.

Add pumps to the boilers coolant in/outputs and only turn them on if boiler pressure is below 5 AND boiler temperature below 110°. This allows for up to 350l of steam to form (pressure x 70 = steam volume in liters) while keeping the temperature below 110°, which in turn allows for the condenser to have an easier time turning steam back into water.

Make sure you have pumps (large electrical ones) to get steam out of the boiler and add one pump for every turbine. Also pressurize condenser steam input and water return to the boiler by using pumps, small ones should do here.

The condenser WILL put out water, as long as its temperature is below 100°. The number it's putting out is rather small, with the advanced tooltip enabled (check general settings) you can see a negative sign in front of the "Water Out" tooltip, this means the condenser is actively condensing and working as intended.
Same goes for the radiator that should be added to the condenser, add pumps to in and output.

There's no need for any overpressure valves or similar, it's a closed system and will work forever.

Can't thank you enough, the actual problem was something stupid and i figured it out but this definitly helped me fine tune it and make it efficient.

[Fox]

Running 63 turbines from 1 boiler sound pretty broken to me. Just Stormworks things.
Thanks for the explanation.

[GrumpyOldMan]

Originally posted by Fox:

Running 63 turbines from 1 boiler sound pretty broken to me. Just Stormworks things.
Thanks for the explanation.

Yeah, especially with pumps being mandatory. Boiler pressure alone won't do much, even at 9.99.

[emyfel]

I've only now realised you can run more than 1 turbine from 1 boiler. What a hell?

[fixius01]

and you can run it on diesel

[emyfel]

Originally posted by fixius01:

and you can run it on diesel

Now I'm even more confused

[fixius01]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2631230181

[Lystent]

Many parts in SW could benefit greatly from better labeling in the builder (like indicators for inlets/outlets).
I'll add that I've stopped using steam turbines on my new ships. Couldn't get much power without exploits, and still was difficult to be as good as pistons without exploits. I got a submersible cancer box* to go 100 knots, no flywheels/partially-engaged clutches/steam pumps. Just enough gearboxes to turn the ginormous mountain of torque into RPS.

*Side note, radiation simulation is broken ATM.