Switching on power plants automatically when needed

[Cdr.MaS]

Hello guys,

here I have a conclusion to the question how to tell the energy network which source to take energy from.
After setting up my solar panels I noticed that at night my steam engines delivered the energy needed to keep my base running.
I searched for some option which might have given me the chance to switch this simply to the accumulators but as you know, there isn't such a thing.
So I set up my mind and thought about how this could be fixed but I had not one good idea.
Then I came across this. http://i.imgur.com/hVCAwD5.jpg
This thing was designed to counteract blackouts and is simple and ingenious.
I looked at it for a while and then it came to my mind, that you could easily turn this into a switch and expand this to mutliple stages which would be able to switch on and off your steam engines as needed.
The basic idea is that when your system is running low on energy the two inserters stop working and the burner inserter has the chance to grab the passing coal and put it into the boiler which then provides the single steam engine with heated up water, leading to what it is made for, producing power.

Now the idea I had was to generally run the base on solar panels since they produce energy the non pollution way and that is alway a good thing, and store the energy not used in accumulators for night time, switching on the steam engines automatically only when needed.
And here it is:
I shall explain this, the red lines ar the connection of the steam engines with the main grid, the larger sections boxed in purple, white and yellow are the inserters and boilers connected to the lines of engines right behind the respective sections. The smaller boxed sections are single steam engines that power the inserters in the boxes of the same colour.
Now the trick. First only the switch for the engine boxed in purple is running, so the engine is not running and so the inserters to the left of it do nothing and the first block is not delivering power. When energy is low, the two inserters to the right of the single engine will stop working, and the coal will be put into the boiler by the burner inserter as I metioned before. This will atomatically set the next block in the middle into waiting mode because the respective switch next to the single engine boxed in white will be turned on. The green line across the picture is a connection between the block of engines to the left with the switch beneath the white box. When power in the main grid is low, so it will be in the grid only consisting of the three poles which are indicated with the green line, what means that happens what I discribed before.
With this set up you are able to line up as many back-up engine blocks as you may want.
It works quite well because the single steam engine delivers 510 kW of power but the inserters only need a small fraction of that and will be able to operate a long time, before the coal in the boilers connected to the single steam engine runs out. Even if it does and the whole line of engines stop working it is no problem, because this leads to a leak in power which then starts the engines another time.

In the smallest picture you can see a smart chest from which the coal is taken. By choosing a smart chest fed by a smart inserter which takes coal from the belt infront of it I made sure, that the system is able to run 100% on it's own and I can stay away from that thing.

If you combine my set up with the oil power plant in this thread (https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=8&t=7052) you'll have a completely automated infinite source of energy, that only runs when it is needed to avoid massive pollution and never needs to be thought about again.

Hopefully you'll like it

Regards
Cdr.MaS

[Nova]

Could you summarize why this is better than the other ways of stopping the steam generators as soon as the solar fields can feed the factory?

[User_Name]

Then I came across this. http://i.imgur.com/hVCAwD5.jpg

This pic is from the very first design.
Use the variation with the pump
https://forums.factorio.com/forum/vie ... f=8&t=6665
Much more responsive, saves a lot of fuel too.

You need 2 pumps per 10 engines.

[Cdr.MaS]

@Nova
It is a way of saving up resources that you otherwise would need to invest in accumulators.
As those have an max output of 300 kW, which means that you might need a lot more accumulators to run lasser turrets then you'd need for only running the factory on solar.
When your low on resources this might be helpful, because you can use your batteries on other things
in addition I think that it is a good thing to have a back up system that kicks in automatically

@User_Name
I see you have a point there
removing the smart chest from my design makes it low tech, which also might be considered useful
nervertheless, I will try that thing with the tanks
the water stays hot in there?

[User_Name]

The tanks are optional, the main difference is that steam engines are switched on/off not by powering fuel inserters, but by powering electric pump (which cut off water supply if unpowered).

Pros:
-the boilers of the big engine are already fueled
-the water in boilers already at 100˚
-instant on/off

[Cdr.MaS]

that's obviously better, didn't think of that
started playing this game two weeks ago so I don't know all of the items and their respectiv pros and cons
but I will definitly consider that pump thing

[Saadli]

The only real advantage of using the storage tanks like I had in the other thread, is the fact that you can use less boilers. A tank full of hot water should last you longer than a blackout, so you should have all day to fill it up again, meaning you don't need a full set of boilers.

[ssilk]

This can be seen also the other way around, Saadli. You can build more steam engines, when the tanks are filled: Instead of only 10 steam engines, you can built up to 20, with the same number of boilers. Doubling the generated energy just by using the day/night cycle and a buffer.

[Saadli]

This can be seen also the other way around, Saadli. You can build more steam engines, when the tanks are filled: Instead of only 10 steam engines, you can built up to 20, with the same number of boilers. Doubling the generated energy just by using the day/night cycle and a buffer.

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean.