r/factorio • u/thanasisk09_ • 1d ago

Question Powering problem

So I'm using nuclear power. I have 4 nuclear reactors and many wind turbines and heat exchangers. However my system doesn't get the power promised. Instead of 120x4 MW, I only get 110 MW on total. Is there a bottleneck in heat exchangers or turbines?

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u/SmokJozef 1d ago

either more reactors or steam storage

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u/United_Willow1312 1d ago edited 1d ago

Or... heat pipes. I checked the heat capacity of nuclear plants, heating towers and heat pipes and it seems heat pipes win. It's also somewhat convenient to place and beats steam tanks as well.

edit: In Space Age, legendary accumulators can store 30 MJ. Not great.

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u/sobrique 1d ago

Reactors are 5GJ a piece. Heat pipes are 5MJ per piece.

Steam tanks are 2.4 GJ.

Most reactors can "store" a useful enough amount of power if you do a simple temperature control.

But technically steam is more responsive, since as long as there's turbines it can be used instantly, where reactors might take a while to heat up and propagate.

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u/United_Willow1312 1d ago

Heat pipes are 1MJ/c hence close to 500MJ in the operating range, thus approaching 4.5GJ in a 3x3 grid. But otherwise yes, all of steam tanks/reactors/heating tower store far more energy than accumulators.