The primary power consumption of large linear accelerators can be significantly lowered by means of superconducting RF technologies. Nevertheless, superconducting RF cavities dissipate energy at low temperatures, and large cryogenic plants have to be operated for the cryogenic supply. In particular, cryogenic plants for future superconducting Energy Recovery Linacs (ERLs) will require primary power in the order of some mega watts. Because of the fundamental laws of thermodynamics, the efficiencies of the cryogenic plants decrease with decreasing operation temperature. At the same time, the dynamic heat losses of high-Q 0 superconducting cavities decrease strongly with temperature. In order to minimize the primary power consumption at stable operating conditions of the cavities, the cryogenic operating conditions, and in particular the operation temperature, have to be optimized. With the focus on helium II cooling, some aspects of cryogenic efficiencies at low temperatures and the consequences for the layout of cryogenic systems are discussed. As an example, options for the cryogenic layout of the European XFEL-Linac including some ERL upgrade options are presented.