Power

From RimWorld Wiki
Revision as of 22:42, 29 May 2020 by Jimyoda (talk | contribs) (Removed from Main category.)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Basics Menus Game Creation Gameplay Pawns Plants Resources Gear Mods
Menus Architect Work Schedule Assign Animals Wildlife Research Quests World History Factions Menu


Template:Tocright Power is electrical energy that powers the operation of certain appliances, including workbenches, lights, temperature control devices, automated defenses, and more. Access to power is crucial to survival, especially in late game. The success of a colony often relies upon a fault-tolerant power grid with a reliable power flow that ensures that your appliances are working at all times, especially in emergencies.


Power generators

Chemfuel powered generator

Chemfuel powered generator.png

The chemfuel powered generator produces power from chemfuel. The generator is an exact analog to the wood-fired generator, only the type of fuel is different. Requires no research for New Arrivals. Unlocked by researching Electricity for Tribal starts

Wood-fired generator

Fueledgenerator.png

The wood-fired generator is identical to the chemfuel generator, except that it is fueled by wood and is slightly cheaper to construct. Requires no research for New Arrivals. Unlocked by researching Electricity for Tribal starts

Geothermal generator

The geothermal generator is a power generator that can be built on top of a steam geyser to convert natural heat into electrical power, providing a constant 3,600W. Steam geysers are randomly generated per map, sometimes close to each other, others scattered towards the edges or center. Colonies are often seen built in their proximity from early days for future benefit.

Geothermal generators can be placed on steam geysers to produce power. Requires research.

Solar generator

SolarCollector.png

Requires no research for New Arrivals. Must be researched separately by Tribal starts.

Wind turbine

Wind Power.png

Wind turbines generate a variable amount of power directly proportional to the wind speed. Requires no research for New Arrivals. Unlocked by researching Electricity for Tribal starts.

Watermill generator

Watermill generator.png

A watermill generator provides power from a moving river. It is relatively cheap and requires no upkeep, but is also fairly large and cannot be placed too closely to another without degrading performance. Requires research.

Ship reactor

ShipReactor.png

Although it is a ship part and not listed in the Power menu, the ship reactor is perfectly usable as a power generator. It provides 1000W of power, with no need for fuel or other maintenance; it does not generate any heat. It is normally only built as part of the space ship to win the game, and must be powered up to become operational for the ship, which triggers a 15-day long enemy invasion event. Requires research.

Vanometric power cell

Vanometric power cell.png

Similar to the ship reactor, the vanometric power cell provides a consistent 1000W of power at all times with no upkeep or restrictions. It has a small footprint and can be moved freely. The catch is that these power cells are very rare; they cannot be manufactured or purchased, only received as a quest reward. With their comparatively low output, there is no reliable way to acquire enough to satisfy more than a small fraction of a normal colony's power budget, but they are a convenient way of powering high-priority or off-grid equipment.

Power generator summary

Type Cost Size Max Output
(Watts)
Variable
Output
Day Night Placement
Solar Steel 100
Component 3
4x4 1700 In sunlight
Wind turbine Steel 100
Component 2
5x2 3450 In open ground
Watermill generator Wood 280
Steel 80
Component 3
5x6 1100 On riverbanks
Chemfuel generator Steel 100
Component 3
2x2 1000 Anywhere
Wood-fired generator Steel 100
Component 2
2x2 1000 Anywhere
Geothermal Steel 400
Component 8
6x6 3600 On geysers
Ship reactor Steel 300
Plasteel 500
Uranium 150
Component 25
6x7 1000 Outside
(can roof over afterwards)
Vanometric power cell N/A 1x2 1000 Anywhere

Power transfers

Power conduit

PowerConduit MenuIcon.png

A power conduit transmits power from generators or batteries to appliances up to six squares away. Conduit doesn't block the placement of other structures and isn't blocked by them, so conduit can be placed wherever it's needed, even in walls, except unsmoothed mountain rocks and ores.


Power switch

PowerSwitch.png


Power storage

Batteries

Battery.jpg

Battery

Battery

Stores electricity for later use. Charged batteries explode when exposed to rain or fire.

Base Stats

Type
BuildingPower
"Expression error: Unexpected < operator." is not a number.
Market Value
Expression error: Unexpected < operator. Silver [Note]
Mass
20 kg
Beauty
-15
HP
100
Flammability
100%
Path Cost
50

Building

Size
1 × 2
Minifiable
True
Placeable
True
Passability
pass through only
Cover Effectiveness
40%
Blocks Wind
True
Terrain Affordance
Medium
Efficiency
50%

Creation

Required Research
Battery
Work To Make
800 ticks (13.33 secs)
Resources to make
Steel 70 + Component 2
Deconstruct yield
Steel 35 + Component 1
Destroy yield
Steel 17 - 18 + Component 0 - 1
Technical
thingCategories
BuildingsPower


</noinclude>

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

Acquisition

s can be crafted, each requiring and Expression error: Unexpected < operator. of work modified by the general labor speed of the crafter.

Summary

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

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

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 spent all for no benefit.

Power storage

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

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

  • 0.0.245 - Charged batteries now explode while burning.

</noinclude>


Appliances

Appliances are structures or buildings that require power but don't transmit it. Most appliances can connect automatically if placed up to six squares away from a conduit, generator or battery. When connected to the power grid, it can take a few moments before an appliance turns on.


Managing appliances

Reconnect: Click to force an appliance to reconnect to a conduit line or power source. This can also be used to change which power source an appliance is connected to if there is more than one in range.
Designate toggle power: Click to mark an appliance to be turned on () or off (X) by a colonist set to flick.


Reconnect
Reconnect
Toggle ON Toggle OFF
Designate toggle power


Template:Clr


Appliances summary

Appliance Power
consumption (in Watts)
Autodoor 50
Electric tailor bench 120
Electric smithy 210
Machining table 350
Electric smelter 700
Electric crematorium 250
Nutrient paste dispenser 200
Standing lamp 75
Sun lamp 2900 during day only
Hydroponics basin 70
Comms console 200
Electric stove 350
Heater 175
Cooler 200
Mini-turret 80
Tube Television 200
Flatscreen Television 150
Megascreen Television 220