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Heat source: Steam boilers are used with coal (standard and large coal fireboxes), electric (electric furnaces), diesel (diesel fireboxes), and nuclear-powered (custom reactors with fuel rods and fuel rod assemblies) steam engines. One of these heat sources provides hot fluid to the boiler where fresh water is converted into steam. If using a nuclear reactor, a separate pump must included to take hot water from the reactor to the boiler.
Fresh water source: A steam boiler spawns with a small amount of fresh water in it by default, but this supply will not last long enough to be practical on most vehicles. The simplest way to supply fresh water to a boiler is by having a tank of fresh water pumped into the boiler, but this takes up a large amount of space on a vehicle and can be quite risky because damage to this tank will cause the fresh water to leak out, leaving your vehicle with only the limited supply in the boiler. A great solution for boats is to use the desalinator part to take sea water and turn it into fresh water that can then be pumped into a boiler. Other vehicles are usually forced to use the condenser to take the steam from the output of a turbine/piston and turn it back into fresh water. It is important to remember that Stormworks does take into account ambient temperature which is greatly effected by fireboxes and reactors so putting these components as far as possible from each other can greatly improve efficiency.
Pressure: Boilers can begin to build up pressure when their temperature is at least 100, and they'll build up pressure faster when they are at higher temperatures. A steam release valve (taking steam from in between the boiler and the steam piston/turbine to the exterior of the vehicle) that opens when the pressure is greater than 5 or carefully controlling your reactor/firebox/furnace temp can prevent boiler explosion in most cases. There appears to be no performance difference between pressures of 5 to 10, though pressures below 5 tend to reduce performance.