Power
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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
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
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
Requires no research for New Arrivals. Must be researched separately by Tribal starts.
Wind turbine
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
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
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
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 |  100 3 |
4x4 | 1700 | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | In sunlight |
| Wind turbine | 100 2 |
5x2 | 3450 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | In open ground |
| Watermill generator |  280 80 3 |
5x6 | 1100 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | On riverbanks |
| Chemfuel generator | 100 3 |
2x2 | 1000 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Anywhere |
| Wood-fired generator | 100 2 |
2x2 | 1000 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Anywhere |
| Geothermal | 400 8 |
6x6 | 3600 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | On geysers |
| Ship reactor | 300 500 150 25 |
6x7 | 1000 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Outside (can roof over afterwards) |
| Vanometric power cell | N/A | 1x2 | 1000 | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | Anywhere |
Power transfers
Power conduit
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
Power storage
Batteries
Battery
Stores electricity for later use. Charged batteries explode when exposed to rain or fire.
Base Stats
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"Expression error: Unexpected < operator." is not a number.
- Market Value
- Expression error: Unexpected < operator.
[Note] - Mass
- 20 kg
- Beauty
- -15
- HP
- 100
- Flammability
- 100%
- Path Cost
- 50 (21%)
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
70 + 2- Deconstruct yield
- 35 + 1
- Destroy yield
- 17 - 18 + 0 - 1
- thingCategories
- BuildingsPower
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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 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.
- 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
</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.
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Reconnect
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Designate toggle power
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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 |
- 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