Wood-fired generator
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Wood-fired generator
Produces power by consuming wood. Must be periodically loaded with wood fuel by hand.
Base Stats
Building
- Size
- 2 × 2
- Placeable
- Yes
- Power
- + 1000 W
Creation
- Skill Required
- Construction 4
- Work To Make
- 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs)
- Resources to make
100 + 
2- Deconstruct yield
-
75 1
A wood-fired generator is a power source that runs by burning wood as fuel. Holds up to 75 wood max, and will provide power for roughly 3 days and 9 hours before running out, for a fuel consumption of 22 per day.
It can be constructed after completing the Electricity research. It also produces a slight amount of heat as secondary effect, but not enough to classify as temperature control element. However, they should not be sited in or adjacent to spaces you want to cool. Power production is constant so long as it does not run out of fuel. It can be switched off; in the off state it will neither consume fuel nor produce power.
Analysis
Though having a considerable labor cost for chopping and hauling wood, the wood-fired generator nonetheless represents a big improvement in fuel efficiency from neolithic heating and cooling technology.
For example: The passive cooler and the electric cooler have the same cooling power (meaning, they will cool the same space by the same number of degrees -- down to the passive cooler's minimum, anyway). The passive cooler uses 50 wood and cools for 5 days, for a wood consumption of 10 per cooler-day equivalent (CDE). Electric coolers use 200 W when on, meaning the wood-fired generator can power 5 of them, and its wood consumption is 22 per day. This gives a wood consumption per CDE of 4.4, which is more than a doubling of fuel efficiency! This is very noticeable if you are playing the tribal scenario and have need for constant cooling.
In comparison, the wood/CDE for a chemfuel powered generator is 1.8. Though chemfuel has a labor cost for refining, the lessened workload for your choppers and haulers more than makes up for this; thus, the wood-fired generator is strictly obsolete once you have access to chemfuel.
Wind turbines, the other generator type unlocked by the electricity research, require batteries to provide stable power. As such, they in practice require additional research, which you may not want to wait for. They are also a bigger investment (particularly if you take the need for batteries into account), and require more space and care in their placement.
Conclusion: If you have good access to wood, wood-fired generators are a natural choice for your first generator or two, since they provide stable power with little investment and no need for additional research. Longer-term, the labor cost of chopping down trees and hauling the wood makes the wood-fired generator unattractive compared to non-fueled generators, and it is made obsolete by chemfuel. Since it can be turned off, it can serve as emergency backup after you have made the transition to more efficient generators.
History
- A15 - Fueled generator will consume fuel faster. Fuel duration 5 days -> 3 days 9 hours.
- Beta 18 - name changed from fueled generators to wood-fired generators but otherwise identical. This was changed to prevent ambiguity with the Chemfuel powered generator, which was added in the same update.
- 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