Previous page: Chapter 6 - Fluid handling part 1: Fluid behavior and pipes

Electricity

Nearly every machine that is not a burner machine requires electricity to operate. Importantly, this includes labs, and so to start researching new technologies, you'll first need to start generating electricity.

Electricity is generated and distributed only when machines are connected to power networks. A power network consists of one or more electric poles that are interconnected. A machine is connected automatically when it is within the supply range of an electric pole. The momentary electricity supply and demand is identical across the whole a network.

An electrical machines consumes power according to a number of factors. Most important is whether the machine is working, which determines whether power is drawn at the full rate or at a tiny rate when idle. With several machines working at their own times, the total demand for a network changes rapidly. Some generators are able to automatically adjust their load level to accommodate for this. If the total network demand is greater than the supply, all machines continue to operate, but they are slowed down in proportion to how underpowered they are. Every machine slows down by the same rate and a very undersupplied network will stop completely.

On the other hand, if the electric network has more power available than needed, the generators will work to charge any available batteries to full capacity and then any generators that can adjust their load level will turn themselves down so that they consume only as much fuel as necessary. Excess power beyond this does not have any negative effects on the network.

The first available device for electricity generation is the steam engine, while later on technologies can be unlocked to obtain solar panels, battery systems (accumulators), and nuclear power systems.

Steam

Steam is evaporated water and it is the only means to generate power at the start of the game, by producing lots of it in boilers and releasing it in steam engines. It behaves just like other fluids in the sense that in flows in pipes and spreads out across fluid systems. For the sake of simplicity, its temperature and pressure are stable over time regardless of the fullness of its pipes. It does not mix with other fluids and trying to do so results in a warning. It also maintains its temperature over time.

Boiler

A boiler is a 3 by 2 burner device that consumes burner fuels and produces steam out of water. The boiler can be fed water at either of the pipe interfaces that are located at its back corners and are facing its shorter sides. Excess water can pass through the boiler from one short side to the other. When it has fuel, the boiler outputs steam at a pipe interface located at the middle tile of its wider front side and it makes a slight noise. It keeps going until it runs out of fuel or water, or its steam output is full. Meanwhile, inserters can feed fuel into a boiler from any side. One boiler produces enough steam over time to supply precisely two steam engines that are running at full capacity.

Steam engine

Steam engines are 3 by 5 machines that generate power by releasing pressurized steam. The steam can be fed in through either of the pipe interfaces located at the middle tiles of its two shorter sides, and the steam can also pass through them.

When a steam engine has steam inside it and is connected to an electric system with nonzero power demand via electric poles, it will start to release steam exactly as much as needed and make hissing noises. Therefore the easiest way to test a steam engine is to place a small electric pole next to the wider side of the steam engine and to place any electric inserter next to the pole to create a small idle power demand. This demand-matching behavior of steam engines ensures that almost no steam is wasted.

A single steam engine can produce 900 kilowatts of power, which means that a small number of steam engines is enough for a basic early game electric system. However, eventually a base tends to require the power demand equivalent to dozens of steam engines and so other power sources may become more preferable.

Version 0.4 Instructions for setting up offshore pumps, boilers, and steam engines

1. You will need 1 offshore pump, 1 boiler, 1 steam engine, 1 small electric pole, 1 (non-burner) inserter and 5 to 10 pipes. In total crafting and running all these machines requires around 55 iron plates, 10 copper plates, 5 stone unites, 5 coal units and 1 wood unit.

2. After all the items are crafted, head to the nearest water. In Compass Valley, this is around 10 tiles West of the space ship. In these instructions, boilers and steam engines will be set up with their default rotations.

3. Move away from the water side by 4 tiles and check that the area around you is clear for 10 tiles in every direction except for the water. You can determine this by setting the scanner to check for ALL entities and running it once and then sorting the entities by distance. If the nearest entity apart from the water is more than 10 tiles away, it means you have about 10 tiles of free space in a circle around you.

4. Head back to the water side and grab the offshore pump. Attempt to build it with LEFT CLICK. This building is unique in how it offers the valid waterside placement options for you. Select the first available option because it will probably be the nearest to you.

5. The offshore pump will immediately start working because it requires no energy sources. Grab a pipe in hand and use Cursor Mode to search around the pump. One tile of the pump will specify the direction the water output of the pump faces. For Compass Valley, this output is likely to say that it is on the East since you are on the East shore of the lake. Next to this output tile, place the pipe in hand. If the pipe is correctly positioned by the pump output, hovering the cursor over it will say that it contains water.

6. Extend the pipe to make it at least 3 tiles long. This is to make sure that you are far away from a jagged waterside and have space to build.

7. Now grab the boiler. This 3 by 2 machine faces the North by default such that it is 3 tiles wide and 2 tiles high. It has 2 water pipe interfaces at its Southwest and Southeast corners when facing North. Its steam output interface is at its middle North tile.

8. To place the boiler, find the end of the water pipe. In Compass Valley, the end of the pipe has 1 connection to the West and is therefore facing the East. In order to make this pipe align with the boiler water input, move the boiler in hand North by 1 tile and then East by 1 tile and place it down. This will result in the Southwest corner of the boiler align with the East end of the pipe.

9. If placed correctly, the boiler will now contain water. If not, look around with the cursor to identify where the boiler water interfaces are and where the water pipe is. You can add more pipe units or move the boiler to make corrections. The building nudging tool can also assist here.

10. Next, to prepare to place the steam engine to the North of the boiler, move to the south of the boiler.

11. Grab the 3 by 5 steam engine from your inventory. Enable Cursor Mode so that you hold the item freely and from its center. The default rotation of the steam engine will have its steam input interfaces on its North and South edges, which are also its shorter edges.

12. Move the cursor to the middle North Edge tile of the boiler. You can press K to identify the part of the boiler under the cursor, and the reader should identify the correct tile as the steam output.

13. Move the cursor West by 1 tile, to the northwest corner of the boiler. Now, the steam engine preview is now vertically aligned with the boiler.

14. Move the cursor North by 5 tiles so that the full length of the steam engine preview has passed above the boiler and they are now perfectly aligned end to end.

15. Try to place the steam engine. Ideally, this should work. If not, there may be obstacles in the area north of the boiler. You can go there and check with the scanner. You can verify the alignment by seeing if the boiler steam output and the steam engine steam input tiles are side by side.

16. Add coal to the boiler. If the boiler has water access, you should now hear the boiler work for a few seconds until the steam storage fills up. The steam engine should also fill with steam although it will not run yet.

17. To test the steam engine, add a small electric pole directly east or west of it. Then add a regular electric inserter next to the electric pole to create a tiny continuous electricity demand. If everything is correct, you should now hear the steam engine running nonstop at minimum speed.

Extra steps:

18. Later you can add a second steam engine above the first one, since one boiler supports two steam engines. One again with the steam engine in hand, find the northern steam interface at the north edge of the first steam engine. This time the output is also an input, since steam can pass through the engines. Move one tile west and five tiles north and place the second engine. Make sure it is connected to the electric grid too by placing a small electric pole near it, north of the first electric pole.

19. On a tile directly south of the boiler, place a burner inserter facing south. Below the inserter place a chest so that you can have a large fuel supply in it to feed the boiler. Note that the inserter will not insert more than five units of fuel at a time but will keep refueling the boiler until the chest is empty. Instead of a chest, or leading to the chest, you can also add a transport belt carrying coal from a coal patch.

Electric poles

Factorio has electric poles of various types, although only small electric poles are available at the start. Each electric pole type has a limited range around it for supplying buildings, and a slightly longer range for connecting wires to other electric poles. Machines with at least one of their tiles located in the supply area of an electric pole will automatically be able to supply or receive power from the pole's network. Meanwhile, if the wire connection areas of any two electric poles overlap, they will automatically connect with each other using copper wires that appear for free. In Vanilla Factorio, any power pole can handle any amount of power going through it.

Small electric pole

The small electric pole is the first available variant. Its size is 1 by 1 and its supply range is up to 2 tiles away in any direction, including diagonals. The wire reach is limited to 7.5 tiles, which means that small electric poles can be slightly spaced out such that their supply areas do not overlap while they remain connected. This is useful for carrying power across long distances, but in general it is useful to have only up to 4 empty tiles between any two small electric poles, so that everywhere around them is powered.

Tips for building with electric poles

• The preview of an electric pole explains the other poles it can connect to. If there are no available connections at that spot, the nearest electric pole's distance and direction are noted.
• It is enough for only a corner of a building to be powered for the whole building to count as powered.
• It is possible to have a disconnected electric network where two or more electric poles are connected to each other, but not to the main electric grid where your steam engines are connected. The best way to figure this out is to check the status of the electric pole by pressing RIGHT BRACKET. If there is no power, this will let you know and point to the nearest electric pole with power.
• If you want to lay out a continuously powered area, there needs to be four tiles between every two small electric poles. Larger electric poles can be spaced out further. Build lock mode for medium electric poles supports this rather than maximum wire reach.
• If you want to carry electricity across a medium distance, spacing out the poles as far as they go is useful. Build lock mode for small electric poles supports this rather than maximum area coverage.

Next page: "Chapter 8 - Technology tree, labs, and science packs"