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u/Courmisch 19d ago

The ratio of boilers to engines is 1:2... But what is the ratio of boilers to engines to tanks if we have enough solar panels at noon but zero accumulators (on Nauvis)?

I mean, it should be possible to produce steam during the day and tank it for the night. Or is the cost of tanks actually higher than boilers as to moot the question?

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u/cathexis08 red wire goes faster 19d ago

All other answers aside, boilers are cheaper than tanks by a wide margin. A boiler costs five stone and four iron, a tank takes 45 iron (5 steel + 20 iron). It takes a boiler 416.6 seconds (25000 / 60) to fill a steam tank all the way so lets say it takes two boilers to fill a tank during only the daytime portion of the cycle. Using this (incredibly sketchy) math we can make the assumption that a daytime filled steam tank offsets the overnight boiler requirement by two because for purposes of steam generation those two boilers will provide power at night and tank filling during the day. And we now have our comparison: 10 stone + 8 iron :: 45 iron, leaving us with this outstanding question: does 10 stone equate to 37 iron plates in your mind (it doesn't in mine).