if you don't want to cheat at all, use vanilla boilers for a powerplant.
if you don't want to cheat with the burner heaters, just don't use their steam output and use the power they generate directly (ignoring their internal workings, or assume some kind of thermoelectric generator (TEG), Seebeck generator, see also "reverse Peltier element"). there is NO need to connect them to steam engines or turbines, and their efficiency is low, as expected from such a TEG.
the possible steam output is probably only a side effect of them being based on the prototype of vanilla heaters.
if you need to set up an outpost in the desert and don't want to use cheated water sources or do long distance transports of water or steam by train, then the burner heaters are THE solution :-)