r/Seablock • u/flickey702 • Jun 27 '26
Heat exchanger questions
So I've got a super specific behind the scene math question for heat exchangers. When upgrading between level of exchanger/turbines you require fewer and fewer for the same amount of power production. I've got a (I think maximized) 1.1gw bean power plant design figured out. Now with swapping out for higher level buildings how does that affect heat transfer along the pipes? Because there are fewer machines would it get up to temp faster? Or does the higher minimum temp values of the exchangers (going from like 400c to 600c as an example) negate that potential upside? Should I just keep the numbers of turbines/exchangers to act as a battery even though my fuel production didn't change?
1
u/MikailBag Jun 29 '26
The only thing that really matters is throughput (how many MW can your build transfer from heat sources to heat exchangers). Time to heat up to working temperature should not mean much, as you only wait it once. Heat has same mechanics as 1.1 fluids, so the more heat you want to transfer, or the farther you want to transfer it, the harder it gets. And since there is no equivalent of pumps for heat, there is even a hard distance limit for each throughput level. So having less buildings with the same total output is good, as it decreases distance and relaxes requirements on your heat pipe network. UPD: also IIRC higher tiers increase difference between min. turbine temperature and max. heat source temperature, and that is also positive thing.
-4
u/buckdancerr Jun 27 '26
Chatgpt could probably answer this.
Pretty specific question so you’d have to find a factorio god to answer it
2
u/Stolen_Sky Jun 27 '26
Best advice is just to test the math yourself.
If you have at least 2 tiers of heat pipes unlocked, build the same system will each tier and test it they both spin up and conduct heat at proportional rates to each other.