Wood-fired generator

A wood-fired generator is a power source that runs by burning wood as fuel. Holds up to 75 wood max, and consumes it at a rate 22 per day for a constant supply of 1,000W for roughly 3 days and 9 hours before running out. It also produces a slight amount of heat and light while running as secondary effect and thus should not be placed in or adjacent to spaces you want to cool.

Acquisition

Wood-fired generators can be constructed once the Electricity research project has been completed. They require 100 Steel, 2 Components, 2,500 ticks (41.67 secs) of work, and a Construction skill of 4.

Summary

The wood-fired generator consumes 22 wood per day and generates a constant 1000W as long as it is switched on and fueled. It can hold up to 75 fuel at a time, for a maximum run time of 3.27 days. Fuel consumption is not dependent on how much power is actually drawn. Fuel has to be delivered to the generator by a hauler colonists. It can be switched off; in the off state it will neither consume fuel nor produce power.

It outputs light in a 6 tile radius, with the nearest 3.442 tiles being above 50% light level and considered lit. Note that the light source is centered at the bottom-left tile of the generator, rather than the "true" center of the generator. It heats at a rate of 6 heat per second^{^{[Exact mechanic unclear]}}. Unlike many other heat sources, it does not appear to have a maximum temperature and will continue to heat up rooms indefinitely.^{[Confirmation needed]}

Analysis

Though there's considerable labor cost for chopping and hauling wood, it's a big improvement from neolithic technology, and much more stable than wind power.

Campfires and passive coolers heat/cool exactly as much as their electronic counterparts, but use 20 / 50 wood per day, respectively. A wood-fired generator costs 22 wood and gives 1000 W, able to power 5 heaters/coolers, or 1 one of them with 800 W to spare. Plus, the generator or and electric buildings can be turned off.

Wind turbines

Wind turbines are the other generator unlocked and usable from Electricity. They require no labor to maintain, assuming the floor is replaced to prevent tree growth. However, they require a large amount of space - difficult to defend, and impossible for certain colony layouts. Meanwhile, And, as its power is variable, you'd realistically need batteries researched. Since you can turn off a wood generator, there's no restriction to having both wind and wood generators, keeping the latter in reserve until you need them.

Chemfuel generators

Assuming you have a biofuel refinery, a chemfuel powered generator consumes 9 wood per day, for 1000 W of power (-170 W with a refinery).

Chemfuel costs 270 ticks (4.5 secs) of work to refine for a day's worth of it. Getting 11 wood from harvesting wild Saguaro cacti takes 220 ticks (3.67 secs) of work for the same time. However, cacti are rare in the biomes they're found in, and every other tree is much worse, with 330+ ticks of work. This also ignores the slow grow speed and ever-increasing travel distance. And actually growing the trees takes much more work, with cypress trees taking 880 ticks (14.67 secs) of work.

Also, you can make chemfuel out of raw food; corn or even rice are faster to cultivate than trees, while insect meat can be extremely plentiful.

One flaw is that Biofuel Refining costs 700 points of research to acquire. However, boomalopes require no research to mantain. If you have them, chemfuel becomes even more efficient to gather, assuming they can graze for extended periods of time.

Version history

0.13.1135 - Added.
0.15.1279 - Fueled generator will consume fuel faster. Fuel duration 5 days -> 3 days 9 hours.
Beta 18 - Name changed from fueled generator to wood-fired generator to prevent ambiguity with the Chemfuel powered generator, which was added in the same update. No other changes made.
1.1.0 - Refueling is now toggleable.

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