Steam Turbine

The Steam Turbine is a power-building used to convert heat in hot steam into electricity while also deleting a large amount of heat from the surrounding system. It is especially useful in geothermal setups, where it turns otherwise wasted thermal energy into usable power. The building must be placed on a Tile, and its intake ports draw steam from the space below the foundation.

A Steam Turbine requires steam below it to operate, and that steam must be at least 125 °C. If the steam falls below that temperature, it stops producing power. The turbine itself must also stay below 100 °C; if it gets hotter than that, it shuts down and displays a hot-turbine warning. Its own heat limit is separate from overheating rules and does not depend on the material it is made from.

While active, each unblocked inlet consumes 0.4 kg/s of Steam or Crushed Steam, up to 2 kg/s total with all five inlets open. The consumed steam is converted into Water or Crushed Water at a fixed 95 °C, in the same mass as the input steam. Because the output leaves through the same pipe port used for intake, the exhaust line can slowly overpressurize sealed chambers if the water is not able to leave.

Power output depends on both steam temperature and how much steam the turbine can draw. At maximum intake, the turbine begins producing power at 125 °C and scales upward until it reaches its 850 W cap at high enough temperatures. With fewer open inlets, the turbine consumes less steam and needs a higher steam temperature to reach the same cap. In practice, if the steam is under 200 °C, opening as many inlets as possible improves power generation. If the steam is much hotter, blocking some inlets can reduce wasted heat deletion while still keeping the turbine at its power cap.

The turbine also deletes heat from the steam it consumes. The removed heat is proportional to the steam temperature above 95 °C, and the turbine itself adds a fixed operational heat cost on top of that. In other words, the exhaust water always leaves at 95 °C, but the turbine still produces some of its own heat while running.

A Steam Turbine can be used to cool itself by routing its own 95 °C exhaust water through heat exchange behind the building. This allows a self-cooled setup that avoids an Aquatuner, though it requires careful temperature control. In practical use, self-cooling is stable when steam stays around 135 °C or lower, which typically produces about 330 W. Theoretical self-cooling can stretch a little higher, but once the turbine gets too hot, exhaust flow can stop and the setup can stall.

Useful notes:

• It keeps running until turned off manually or by automation, so it can be allowed to waste extra power if the main goal is heat deletion.
• The output pipe cannot merge with incoming packets, so each turbine should have a dedicated uncloggable output segment.
• It exchanges heat with its foundation tiles, so a conductive foundation tile not exposed to steam can help cool it.
• In industrial loops, it pairs well with heat-producing machinery such as the Metal Refinery or Aquatuner, often serving as the heat sink that turns waste heat into power.