Difference between revisions of "Battery"

Latest revision as of 21:09, 25 September 2024

The battery is an electric device that stores power to use when needed.

Acquisition[edit]

Batteries can be constructed once the battery research project has been completed. Each requires 70 Steel, 2 Components and 800 ticks (13.33 secs) of work modified by the construction speed of the builder.

Summary[edit]

Batteries connect directly to the wind turbine and the attached coolers, with no conduits. This power grid will only "Zzztt" if the batteries get rained on.

Batteries automatically charge and discharge when connected to other buildings. Each battery can store 600 Wd (Watt-days) of power at once. 1 Watt-day is equal to powering a 1 W appliance for 24 hours. However, batteries have a 50% efficiency, meaning they take in only half of a grid's excess power. For example, an excess of 200 W for 24 hours will only store 100 Wd. Power is evenly divided between all connected batteries. There is no limit or penalty for power output.

Each tile of battery will also transfer an infinite amount of power through it, as if it were a power conduit. Therefore, electric appliances like standing lamps can connect within 6 tiles of a battery. The battery can't connect in the same way; it requires an adjacent conduit, battery, or power generator to power. A wire will appear when a valid connection is made; you may need to use the Reconnect gizmo on the appliance for it to be powered.

Batteries lose 5 W of stored power per day, even if they aren't connected to anything or are uninstalled in their minified state. Batteries can't be turned off, but a power switch can disconnect them from other buildings.

Health[edit]

An installed battery will short-circuit (the Zzzt... event) if left in the rain or snow without a roof. In addition, each battery's storage contributes towards the random short-circuit event, which can happen so long as a power conduit is connected. However, a battery-only grid is immune to the random event.

Like other furniture, batteries are not subject to deterioration, but short-circuits from rain or snow cause damage. Their health does not impact power storage, discharge, or any other function. Temperature also has no effect past fire creation. However, they can explode when reaching a low enough health.

Analysis[edit]

Batteries are most useful when using wind turbines or solar panels, both which are highly variable power sources. Using a battery creates a 'cushion', making their power more reliable. For instance, a battery is required to use any sort of solar power at night or during an eclipse. Meanwhile, fueled generators are consistent - they'll burn their fuel at a constant rate, even if it would be wasted. While you could just turn the generator off, colonists need to walk to the generator. Using a battery can help save on both fuel and micromanagement.

Even in colonies that do not use wind or solar energy, batteries are useful to cover spikes in power usage, such as short-circuits, turret arrays, or electric smelters. A battery can cover arbitrarily high power needs, the size of the array only changes for how long that is possible. As an example, an array of 20 mini-turrets and 4 autocannon turrets draws 3200 W of power. Instead of building another geothermal generator, each battery will power this for more than 4 in-game hours.

Uninstalled batteries can be used whenever power needs to be transported. They can be used to power remote deep drills, or even put on a caravan. This allows for electric appliances like mini-turrets to be used far away from your base.

As there is no limit on charge or discharge rate and power is divided evenly between batteries, the minimum number of batteries should be used to achieve the required storage. For every 600Wd is routinely left unfilled that is an additional 5W spent, components consumed by breakdowns, and 70 Steel, 2 Components spent all for no benefit.

Power storage[edit]

Separating your batteries behind stone walls will help keep fire from spreading. As you'll rarely need to access a battery itself, stone doors can be safely used for "battery rooms". You may want to keep some additional batteries behind a power switch on a separate network, so they can be brought online in the case of a "Zzzt event". Alternatively, you can uninstall batteries and keep them in a warehouse. Either way, the discharge is negligible.

When powering an emergency array, the battery group should be isolated. There should be 1 power switch to the main power grid, which should be turned on or off when needed. This keeps your power safe from a short circuit. When powering a security array, you can place another, separate switch connected to your turrets, to easily power them on or off.

Unused electric work benches and powered appliances can be turned off to reduce total power usage, via the Designate toggle power order in the work bench menu. This requires a pawn to travel to the appliance and manually turn it off or on. A faster alternative to the Designate Toggle Power order is to build a single piece of power conduit unattached to any power source near the work bench. The Reconnect order from the work bench menu will instantly toggle power connection between the unpowered, solo conduit and your main power grid, saving power usage without requiring work or travel from your pawns.

Efficiency[edit]

When calculating power capacity, keep in mind that charge efficiency is only 50%; half of the excess energy is lost. This is particularly relevant when planning a sun lamp setup. The lamp draws 2900 W during the day, and 0 W during the night, for an average demand of 1595 W. However, an average power of 1595 W is not sufficient, and only enough to power the lamp for 6 hours. Simply adding more batteries will not change this; the problem is the lack of energy. In this scenario, adding another solar generator would be enough to power the lamp.

Version history[edit]

0.0.245 - Charged batteries now explode while burning.

Architect

Power: Power conduit (Hidden, Waterproof) • Power switch • Wood-fired generator • Chemfuel powered generator • Wind turbine
(research): Battery • Geothermal generator • Solar generator • Watermill generator • Toxifier generator • Bioferrite generator
(uncraftable): Vanometric power cell • Unstable power cell
Related: Ship reactor • Electroharvester

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<noinclude>{{rewrite|reason=Format standardizations and independence fixes required as [[Power]] relies on this page}}{{infobox main|building|
+{{infobox main|building|
 |name = Battery
 |image = Battery.jpg|Battery
-|description = Stores electricity for later use. Charged batteries explode when exposed to rain, snow or fire.
+|description = Stores electricity for later use. Charged batteries explode when exposed to rain or fire.
 |type = Building
 |type2 = Power
@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 |resource 2 amount = 2
 }}</noinclude>
-{{Info|The '''battery''' is an electric device that stores power to use when needed. This can even out the power on an electric grid that has an uneven power supply (e.g. [[wind turbine]]s, [[solar generator]]s), and can supply extra emergency power when needed.  There is no limit or throttle to the output - so long as it has charge, that charge will flow to all devices connected at whatever rate is demanded.
+The '''battery''' is an electric device that stores power to use when needed.
-Batteries self-discharge at a rate of 5 W/day, even while disconnected. If they have any charge, they need to be located under a roof to keep them dry (rain or snowfall will quickly cause an explosion).}}
+== Acquisition ==
+{{Acquisition}}
-== Usage ==
+==Summary==
-'''Batteries are built, moved and stored like other kinds of movable furniture.'''
+[[File:Zero_conduit_freezer.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Batteries connect directly to the wind turbine and the attached coolers, with no conduits. This power grid will only "Zzztt" if the batteries get rained on.]]
+Batteries automatically charge and discharge when connected to other buildings. Each battery can store 600 Wd (Watt-days) of [[power]] at once. 1 Watt-day is equal to powering a 1 W appliance for 24 hours. However, batteries have a 50% efficiency, meaning they take in only half of a grid's excess power. For example, an excess of 200 W for 24 hours will only store 100 Wd. Power is evenly divided between all connected batteries. There is no limit or penalty for power output.
-Batteries are built uncharged. In order to charge a battery, it has to be directly connected to a power grid with excess power.  It is not possible to connect to batteries "through" power consumers (this is because consumers cannot be connected to more than one power grid at the same time). If there is surplus power in a circuit that a battery is connected to, the battery will recharge, but only at 50% efficiency (half the extra energy is lost).
+Each tile of battery will also transfer an infinite amount of power through it, as if it were a [[power conduit]]. Therefore, electric appliances like [[standing lamp]]s can connect within 6 tiles of a battery. The battery can't connect in the same way; it requires an adjacent conduit, battery, or power generator to power. A wire will appear when a valid connection is made; you may need to use the Reconnect gizmo on the appliance for it to be powered.
-They will keep their charge while stored ("minified") or disconnected, only discharging at the normal rate of 5 W (self-discharge).
+Batteries lose 5 W of stored power per day, even if they aren't connected to anything or are uninstalled in their minified state. Batteries can't be turned off, but a [[power switch]] can disconnect them from other buildings.
-Installed batteries '''cannot be switched off manually'''.  As long as at least one consumer is connected, the battery will provide power during a deficit, and also be vulnerable to the short-circuit event.  However, a [[power switch]] can be installed which can separate batteries from a circuit.
+===Health===
+An installed battery will short-circuit (the [[Events#Zzztt...|Zzzt...]] event) if left in the [[rain]] or [[snow]] without a [[roof]]. In addition, each battery's storage contributes towards the random short-circuit event, which can happen so long as a [[power conduit]] is connected. However, a battery-only grid is immune to the random event.
-Installed batteries '''need to be kept dry'''.  If outdoors, a roof has to be built over the tiles occupied by the battery.  If a battery becomes wet (either due to rain or snowfall), there is a very high chance of a short circuit, causing an explosion and fire (probably spreading to adjacent batteries and connected devices).  At least the rain will usually extinguish the fire...
+Like other [[furniture]], batteries are not subject to [[deterioration]], but short-circuits from rain or snow cause damage. Their health does not impact power storage, discharge, or any other function. [[Temperature]] also has no effect past [[fire]] creation. However, they can explode when reaching a low enough health.
-Damage to a battery does not change its other properties and does not cause discharge (eg. a 1 hitpoint battery has the same capacity and wattage as a 100 hitpoint battery).
+== Analysis ==
+Batteries are most useful when using [[wind turbine]]s or [[solar panel]]s, both which are highly variable power sources. Using a battery creates a 'cushion', making their power more reliable. For instance, a battery is required to use any sort of solar power at night or during an [[eclipse]]. Meanwhile, fueled generators are consistent - they'll burn their fuel at a constant rate, even if it would be wasted. While you could just turn the generator off, colonists need to walk to the generator. Using a battery can help save on both fuel and micromanagement.
-== Batteries as power supplies ==
+Even in colonies that do not use wind or solar energy, batteries are useful to cover spikes in power usage, such as short-circuits, [[turret]] arrays, or [[electric smelter]]s. A battery can cover arbitrarily high power needs, the size of the array only changes for how long that is possible. As an example, an array of 20 [[mini-turret]]s and 4 [[autocannon turret]]s draws 3200 W of power.  Instead of building another [[geothermal generator]], each battery will power this for more than 4 in-game hours.
-A single battery's charge capacity is 600 Watt-days, which is 600 Watts x 24 hours - but, again, there is no limit to the output.  If the demand is 1,200 Watts, a battery will last 12 hours, and if it's 120,000 Watts, that same batter will last .12 hours (just over 7 minutes). There is no limit to how many batteries can be attached to a single circuit. If more than one battery is on the same power grid, all batteries with remaining charge will share the power load evenly.
-With regards to power production, they behave like the other electric buildings in the game. All power consumers can connect to batteries in the same way as to other power sources: within a 5-tile radius, a device can directly connect to a battery (or array of batteries), without power conduits in between.
+Uninstalled batteries can be used whenever power needs to be transported. They can be used to power remote [[deep drill]]s, or even put on a [[caravan]]. This allows for electric appliances like [[mini-turret]]s to be used far away from your base.
-Just like the other power producing buildings, a battery '''acts as a power conduit''' on the 2 tiles it covers.
+As there is no limit on charge or discharge rate and power is divided evenly between batteries, the minimum number of batteries should be used to achieve the required storage. For every 600Wd is routinely left unfilled that is an additional 5W spent, components consumed by [[breakdown]]s, and {{Required Resources}} spent all for no benefit.
-Consumers can connect to batteries directly, up to a distance of 5 tiles away, by using the ''reconnect'' action on the consumer until it is connected to the battery.
+===Power storage===
+Separating your batteries behind stone [[wall]]s will help keep fire from spreading. As you'll rarely need to access a battery itself, stone doors can be safely used for "battery rooms". You may want to keep some additional batteries behind a [[power switch]] on a separate network, so they can be brought online in the case of a "Zzzt event". Alternatively, you can uninstall batteries and keep them in a warehouse. Either way, the discharge is negligible.
-The battery can also be connected to a power grid like any other power generator.  Simply placing the battery next to a generator, power conduit, switch or another battery will connect it to the respective power grid.
+When powering an emergency array, the battery group should be isolated. There should be 1 power switch to the main power grid, which should be turned on or off when needed. This keeps your power safe from a short circuit. When powering a security array, you can place another, separate switch connected to your turrets, to easily power them on or off.
-As a power supply, the battery behaves just like any other power source in the game (eg. generators or solar panels), but each battery will deliver an unlimited amount of power.  This means that any ''wattage'' can be delivered until the battery is completely discharged.  It makes the battery not only convenient as buffers for wind turbines and solar panels, but also to cover arbitrary spikes in power usage, usually caused by turret arrays and other heavy power consumers that are only brought on-line sporadically.
+Unused electric work benches and powered appliances can be turned off to reduce total power usage, via the Designate toggle power order in the work bench menu. This requires a pawn to travel to the appliance and manually turn it off or on. A faster alternative to the Designate Toggle Power order is to build a single piece of [[power conduit]] unattached to any power source near the work bench. The Reconnect [[order]] from the work bench menu will instantly toggle power connection between the unpowered, solo conduit and your main power grid, saving power usage without requiring work or travel from your pawns.
-The power output of a battery is theoretically unlimited.  Even a huge colony that demands, say, 30,000 W of power can be powered by a single battery (but only for about 1 in-game hour if the battery is fully charged).  Adding more batteries is only necessary to lengthen the time span.
+===Efficiency===
+When calculating power capacity, keep in mind that charge efficiency is only 50%; half of the excess energy is lost. This is particularly relevant when planning a [[sun lamp]] setup. The lamp draws 2900 W during the day, and 0 W during the night, for an average demand of 1595 W. However, an average power of 1595 W is not sufficient, and only enough to power the lamp for 6 hours. Simply adding more batteries will not change this; the problem is the lack of energy. In this scenario, adding another [[solar generator]] would be enough to power the lamp.
-The maximum amount of energy provided per battery is 600 Wd (''watt-days'') for a fully charged battery.  E.g. if exactly 595 W were drawn, a single battery would last exactly 1 in-game day (taking into account the 5 W of self-discharge).  If only 295 W are drawn, it lasts for 2 days, etc.  Since maximum power draw is unlimited it is – theoretically – possible to empty a full battery in 1 tick of game time (instantly).
-A disconnected battery will discharge at a rate of 5 W.  This means that a fully charged battery can be stored for 120 days (2 in-game years) until depleted.
-== Charging ==
-Batteries charge automatically while connected to a power grid with excess power.  Selecting the battery will show the current charge status in the information window.
-The power used for charging is unlimited, ie. charging batteries will always draw all power that is not used by other consumers, so they never cause a power deficiency on the grid.  All batteries on a grid will share charging power fairly.
-Only half the power used for charging is stored as energy, ie. the ''charge efficiency'' is 50%.  In other words, to fully charge an empty battery, 1200 Wd of energy must be provided (in addition to a constant 5 W to cover the self-discharge), but only 600 Wd will get stored.
-As an example, connecting an empty battery to a power grid with exactly 1205 W of available power will charge it to full in exactly 1 in-game day.  If more power was available, charging would complete more quickly.  5 W of charging power would keep the battery at exactly the present charge level, merely nullifying the self-discharge.
-In practice, the self-discharge can usually be ignored.
-== Constructing, moving and storing ==
-Batteries behave exactly like other furniture items in the game: they have to be constructed on solid terrain, using the construction skill.  It takes 14 work units to build, and can be done even at construction level 0.
-After construction, they can be uninstalled like furniture, and then moved to storage, taken to a character's inventory or on a caravan.  Uninstalling and reinstalling does not cause additional charge loss, beyond the 5 W of self-discharge that always applies.
-It is possible to take charged batteries on caravans as a power source for camps and newly founded colonies.
-Batteries that are not installed can be stored in the open, also in rain or snowfall, as they cannot short circuit.  Like other furniture, they are not subject to ''decay''.
-== Hazards ==
-'''Batteries are very likely to explode in rain  and snowfall'''.  This can be completely avoided by keeping installed batteries under a roof; keeping them indoors is not necessary.  The resulting explosion will not cause any discharge, but it will heavily damage the battery, and possibly surrounding structures as well, also causing a fire.
-'''Batteries make the [[Events#Zzztt...|short circuit]] event ("Zzztt...") more dangerous:''' all affected batteries will instantly discharge, causing an explosion in addition to the fire that is normally caused by the event.  The more batteries are connected, the larger the explosion.  However: ''"Zzztt" happens to conduits, not batteries.'' A short circuit can still happen in a zero-battery power grid, but will only cause a one-tile fire and no explosion.  Empty batteries will not affect the event.
-It is not the batteries that explode, but a random area around the affected power-conduit.  This could be right next to a battery, or a long distance away from it.
-The random short circuit event can be completely avoided if there are no ''power conduits'' in the same grid with the battery. Alternatively, you can disconnect the batteries from the main power grid with a power switch to minimize the damage of shorts.  The switch needs to be placed directly next to the battery array, separating the power conduits on the main grid from the batteries.  The batteries are only protected if the switch is turned off, separating the connection.  This makes the solution impractical for batteries that need to be always online.
-[[File:Zero_conduit_freezer.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Batteries connect directly to the wind turbine and the attached coolers, with no conduits. This power grid will only "Zzztt" if the batteries get rained on.]]
-It is also possible to avoid building any ''power conduits'' at all.  This is only feasible for small, self-contained installations.  The batteries themselves, as well as other power generating buildings, have built-in power conduits, but these are immune to short circuits.  Because appliances can directly connect to batteries and generators, you can construct conduit-free power grids with some careful planning.
-If the above measures are impractical, [[firefoam popper]]s should be installed where an explosion would cause a lot of damage, such as inside a hydroponics facility or a storage area.
-Battery performance is not affected by temperature.  Somewhat contrary to the in-game description, the battery is not more susceptible to heat than other, comparable flammable structures.  Even the most extreme heat waves will not make a battery explode or catch fire.  It is therefore not necessary to keep batteries climatized.
-== Strategy ==
-Batteries are useful in most colonies, even if the colony does not rely on unstable power sources like [[solar panel]]s and [[wind turbine]]s.
-If only renewable energy is used, at least one battery is mandatory, because sufficient power supply can never be guaranteed.  Solar panels produce no power during the night and during an eclipse, and wind turbines are completely unreliable.  If the colony has no other backup power source, it is highly recommended to keep some additional batteries behind a [[power switch]] on a separate network (see ''Hazards'' above), so they can be brought online in the case of a ''short circuit'' event.
-Alternatively, some batteries can also be stored in a warehouse, and then placed down anywhere on the power grid on demand.  This makes switches unnecessary.
-Batteries can also be used to make fueled generators more economical.  These generators provide constant power, but they also burn their fuel at a constant rate – no matter how much power is actually used.  If you connect some batteries, you can at least catch half of the otherwise wasted energy, and then disable the generator until the batteries run dry.  This will save 100% of the fuel for the time the generator is offline.  This is especially helpful in the early game, where you might not even have enough power draw to fully load a single generator, and fuel will be usually scarce as well.
-The energy stored by even a single battery is very high.  600 Wd are enough to power, for example, three [[cooler]]s at full power draw for an entire day, with no other source of power available.  Therefore, building a lot of batteries ("just to be safe") is not necessary, or even harmful.  Unless you take complex and expensive measures to avoid the ''short circuit'' event, having too many batteries online is a liability.  Examine closely how much energy storage you need, and do not build more than that.
-When you calculate the battery capacity that is necessary when using renewable energy, keep in mind that charge efficiency is only 50%.  That is, only half of any excess energy will be effectively usable.  This is particularly relevant when planning a greenhouse setup, of [[hydroponics basin]]s and a [[sun lamp]].  The ''sun lamp'' will draw 2900 W during the day, and 0 W during the night, for an average demand of 1450 W.  However, it is not sufficient to generate only 1450 W at all times, hoping that a 3-battery array will even out the difference in power draw.  This is because during the night, only half of the extra 1450 W will effectively charge the batteries, storing 8,700 Wh of energy (~360 Wd).  This will only be enough to power the sun-lamp for 6 hours during the day.  For the remaining 6 hours, the missing 1450 W will have to be provided by other means (usually a solar panel).  Simply adding more batteries will not change this.  Two batteries will provide enough buffering in this scenario.
-The example setup, including 24 hydroponics basins, can be fully powered by one geothermal generator and a solar panel, connected to a single buffer battery.
-Even in colonies that do not use wind or solar energy, batteries are useful to cover spikes in power usage, usually caused by turret arrays and devices like crematoriums, smelters and mineral scanners that are only brought online intermittently.  A battery can cover arbitrarily high power needs, the size of the array only changes for how long that is possible.
-As an example, an array of 20 mini-turrets and 4 autocannon turrets draws 3200 W of power.  Instead of building another geothermal generator that would cover this, even a single charged battery can power this entire setup for more than 4 in-game hours.  An array of 5 batteries can power the defenses for an entire in-game day.  The battery array should be isolated with two power switches from the security grid and main power grid.  This makes it then also very easy to power the entire setup with a single switch, as well as keep the batteries safe from the ''short circuit'' event.
-</onlyinclude>
-<noinclude>
 == Version history ==
 * [[Version/0.0.245|0.0.245]] - Charged batteries now explode while burning.
-</noinclude>
 {{nav|power|wide}}
-[[Category:Buildings]]
 [[Category:Power]]
+</noinclude>