In first and second games i played i thought it was best to have different energy producers. Maintaince will be more spread out so that is a good idea i thought. Problem was of course solar panels shut down during night so had to build more wind/Stirling to cover the loss. Quit using solar panels now leading to that my machine parts needs are so big just to maintain wind. I can in day 100 have 10 stirling and 30 Wind. And my build in domes follow same pattern. First and second dome always have machine factory. So how do you all go about using solar Panels?
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Solar panels + batteries all the way. I rush the polymer factory for battery maintenance.
The whole thing is about having enough solar panels and some auxiliary energy trough the day to fill batteries then let batteries fill your needs through the night.
With cold waves you better need extra wind though or everything will shut down.
With cold waves you better need extra wind though or everything will shut down.
How many batteries are we talking about? I always build one battery and two water/oxygen close to my domes. If my pipes or wires break down atleast it will keep my domes for a while. New patch broke my old game and want to try different game play instead of following same old pattern.
I was thinking about the idea of a solar panel farm i.e. a huge grouping of them which fill several batteries. These then act as primary or auxiliary power for nearby domes.
Don't forget that batteries have a limit to how much electricity they can release when they are being drawn upon to power anything.
I have multiple batteries spread all over the place for night time use.
I have multiple batteries spread all over the place for night time use.
I usually go with 1 battery for every 6 panels and sometimes if I am high enough altitude I may do a few wind turbines.
Next to my domes I put an extra Battery, O2 tank, and water tower
Next to my domes I put an extra Battery, O2 tank, and water tower
Quite differently with my mod honestly.
- Solar Panels get dusty and have a reduced output then
- Wind fluctuates
- Batteries are only 70% efficient
so the only way you will have stable output is sterlings.
- Solar Panels get dusty and have a reduced output then
- Wind fluctuates
- Batteries are only 70% efficient
so the only way you will have stable output is sterlings.
A battery can release up to 20 energy per time unit. The trick with batteries is look at the amount of energy you are negative. Divide by 20, that is how many batteries you need to stay afloat. Then you just need to produce enough energy during positive hours (day) to fill the battery. As others have said, 6 panels per battery will do it.
The way you have played I can tell you haven't done a hard sponsor. With the hard sponsors resources are so limited extreme machine parts maintenance or buying stirling is out of the question. The resource crunch is real. Polymers and metal are cheap.
I tend to think of constant producers in terms of their output compared to batteries. Batteries effectively cost 6 metal and 1 polymer maintenance for 20 constant energy.
A wind turbine with no bonuses produces 5 energy. 4 wind turbines costs 2 machine parts maintenance. If you have a machine parts factory running two shifts wind turbines are a bit more cost effective than going deeper with batteries.
A stirling when open produces 20 energy for 1 polymer maintenance. Closed they require no maintenance at all. Stirlings are honestly the most efficient source of power long term. If you can afford the cost to build them (12 p, 6 e) and leave them closed they are maintenance free energy that is quite space efficient.
Fusion produces 200 energy but has a high upfront cost of 20 p and 20 e. It also requires 8 workers baseline and costs 3 e maintenance. They are extremely good with scrubbers and the breakthrough that removes the need to staff them (workers are very valuable). Without the breakthrough they are ok. If you have a dome with spare people it would be worth building one with a scrubber next to it.
The way you have played I can tell you haven't done a hard sponsor. With the hard sponsors resources are so limited extreme machine parts maintenance or buying stirling is out of the question. The resource crunch is real. Polymers and metal are cheap.
I tend to think of constant producers in terms of their output compared to batteries. Batteries effectively cost 6 metal and 1 polymer maintenance for 20 constant energy.
A wind turbine with no bonuses produces 5 energy. 4 wind turbines costs 2 machine parts maintenance. If you have a machine parts factory running two shifts wind turbines are a bit more cost effective than going deeper with batteries.
A stirling when open produces 20 energy for 1 polymer maintenance. Closed they require no maintenance at all. Stirlings are honestly the most efficient source of power long term. If you can afford the cost to build them (12 p, 6 e) and leave them closed they are maintenance free energy that is quite space efficient.
Fusion produces 200 energy but has a high upfront cost of 20 p and 20 e. It also requires 8 workers baseline and costs 3 e maintenance. They are extremely good with scrubbers and the breakthrough that removes the need to staff them (workers are very valuable). Without the breakthrough they are ok. If you have a dome with spare people it would be worth building one with a scrubber next to it.
usage of solar panels -
if your sponsor is wealthy enough to bring stirling for start then bring one. never build any solar panel
if not then build one to get enough concrete to build wind power-plant, steady source of power with extra energy during dust storms. on high ground every wind-powerplant produce 10 energy and with upgrade raise to 13. scrubber decrease maintenence cost to 0
if your sponsor is wealthy enough to bring stirling for start then bring one. never build any solar panel
if not then build one to get enough concrete to build wind power-plant, steady source of power with extra energy during dust storms. on high ground every wind-powerplant produce 10 energy and with upgrade raise to 13. scrubber decrease maintenence cost to 0
As others have said, your basic unit for solar power is 6 large solar panels and 1 battery (let's call that a 6-pack). That will supply 20 power, night and day. If you need more than 20 power overnight, then you either add an additional battery (and more panels) or top it up with something that supplies power at night (usually wind or stirling). Alternately, you can just turn off the night shift for some of your power users, to keep nighttime usage at 20, and then just add solar panels as needed to run daytime shifts.
For example, let's say you have:
The thing about solar, as you discovered OP, is that the build and maintenance costs are cheap. A six pack costs metal and a few polymers, which are materials you can usually find on the map, and are early tech + out-dome facilities if not. Wind costs machine parts, which are expensive to import, later tech, and made in-dome. All of that means solar should be your default power source, especially with harder difficulty sponsors.
Another nice thing about solar, is that there's no maintenance costs for closed solar panel. So you can overbuild and keep them closed. That's useful when prepping for the cold spell disaster.
The reason you can't just go solar in the early game is dust storms. If that's a threat, you need to plan for multiple sols where you either keep your panels closed, or run a reduced efficiency and extra maintenance costs.
For example, let's say you have:
1 concrete extractor
1 water extractor
1 fuel refinery
1 sensor tower
That's 17 power usage, which you can run on one 6-pack. Now, say a cold front is coming, and turning on your heater will require 6.4 power to cover all of those buildings. That's going to push your usage to 23.4, which is more than your 6-pack can supply. To deal with this, you can either a) add 1 wind turbine, b) add 1 battery and 2 panels, or c) add 1 panel, and switch one of your extractors to run only during the day. Since solar panels only cost metal to build and maintain, (c) is probably preferable in the early game.1 water extractor
1 fuel refinery
1 sensor tower
The thing about solar, as you discovered OP, is that the build and maintenance costs are cheap. A six pack costs metal and a few polymers, which are materials you can usually find on the map, and are early tech + out-dome facilities if not. Wind costs machine parts, which are expensive to import, later tech, and made in-dome. All of that means solar should be your default power source, especially with harder difficulty sponsors.
Another nice thing about solar, is that there's no maintenance costs for closed solar panel. So you can overbuild and keep them closed. That's useful when prepping for the cold spell disaster.
The reason you can't just go solar in the early game is dust storms. If that's a threat, you need to plan for multiple sols where you either keep your panels closed, or run a reduced efficiency and extra maintenance costs.
If you turn the night shift in a cold wave won't the building freeze in the meantime ? All 3 shifts have to get at least one man if you don't want your building to freeze if not heated.
I'd add build and overproduce power a bit is not bad but each power you make without batteries is definitely lost. It's no reason though to build too many preventive batteries as it will turn to have heavy polymer maintenance cost, just build what you need when you need it. It's ok to have batteries depleting in the night if you have enough solars in the day to replenish them. It's somehow even better cause you're not producing energy to be lost (meaning you have the perfect amount of maintenance for your colony needs).
Not if it's inside the heater's area of effect.
I probably could have been clearer about that in the example - the idea is that all the buildings are clustered close enough to heat them all with a single heater set to a six-hex radius, which requires 6.4 power. That kept the extra power requirement easy to calculate. Also, if you have concrete and water deposits near enough together to make it work, it's a great setup for a remote extraction site, as you only have to use a single heater for your concrete/fuel supply, but can space the buildings far enough apart to avoid the extractors' dust (i.e. extra machine parts cost). I don't have one set up perfectly in my game, but here's one in blueprint (solar panels and batteries would go off of the refinery):
Attachments
In my last playthrough I severely handicapped myself on resources to make the game more difficult/interesting and the result was me not building a single Wind turbine or Stirling generator, my entire power supply came from (large) solar panels and batteries, because this was the most resource efficient. So here's my guide on solar panels (and batteries):
The key is to understand how batteries work and manage your energy at night. Battery will store all your excess solar panel power during day (two thirds of a Sol - 16 hours) and provide this power during night (8 hours). The small battery can output 20 energy which means 160 power at night (8x20) so during day you need 10 excess power (16x10). Basically your excess during day needs to be half of your consumption at night. This calculates into 6 solar panels per battery but I would actually suggest 7 for the first few, since you want to charge your rovers and it's better to have extra stored in case of cable faults.
Now here's the thing, not all buildings have to run at night. The Concrete extractor will eventually deplete and unless you urgently need concrete it doesn't hurt to turn off the night shift. Oxygen tank and Water tower work the same way as batteries which means Moxie and Water extractor/some of vaporizers can be turned off at night as well. This greatly reduces the need for additional batteries and with a really good water deposit you could actually run your founder stage dome with just one battery (15 for dome + 1 for living quarters + 4 left for something like sensor towers) if you sacrificed making fuel at night and had no drone hub.
Then there's the big battery (Atomic Accumulator) usually pretty early-ish in the Physics tech tree that makes your life easier. It has 5 times the output of small battery and 10 times the capacity, the only 'drawback' that it only charges at max 50 so your power excess needs to be high enough in both first two shifts and not just it one, else it won't fully charge for the night. It makes sense to salvage your small batteries once you get it and build a big one for every 5 small ones because of 2 polymer maintenance compared to 5, without even considering the extra capacity. Ideally you should have it researched before having to build your 6th small battery.
Building Wind turbines is a waste of resources, unless you have a good elevation bonus and/or the breakthrough which increases their production by 100%. edit: and if you're on a dust storm heavy map
The key is to understand how batteries work and manage your energy at night. Battery will store all your excess solar panel power during day (two thirds of a Sol - 16 hours) and provide this power during night (8 hours). The small battery can output 20 energy which means 160 power at night (8x20) so during day you need 10 excess power (16x10). Basically your excess during day needs to be half of your consumption at night. This calculates into 6 solar panels per battery but I would actually suggest 7 for the first few, since you want to charge your rovers and it's better to have extra stored in case of cable faults.
Now here's the thing, not all buildings have to run at night. The Concrete extractor will eventually deplete and unless you urgently need concrete it doesn't hurt to turn off the night shift. Oxygen tank and Water tower work the same way as batteries which means Moxie and Water extractor/some of vaporizers can be turned off at night as well. This greatly reduces the need for additional batteries and with a really good water deposit you could actually run your founder stage dome with just one battery (15 for dome + 1 for living quarters + 4 left for something like sensor towers) if you sacrificed making fuel at night and had no drone hub.
Then there's the big battery (Atomic Accumulator) usually pretty early-ish in the Physics tech tree that makes your life easier. It has 5 times the output of small battery and 10 times the capacity, the only 'drawback' that it only charges at max 50 so your power excess needs to be high enough in both first two shifts and not just it one, else it won't fully charge for the night. It makes sense to salvage your small batteries once you get it and build a big one for every 5 small ones because of 2 polymer maintenance compared to 5, without even considering the extra capacity. Ideally you should have it researched before having to build your 6th small battery.
Building Wind turbines is a waste of resources, unless you have a good elevation bonus and/or the breakthrough which increases their production by 100%. edit: and if you're on a dust storm heavy map
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I start with about 10 solar and 10 wind... plus 2-3 batteries ... with redundancies in my cables and pipes. Keep them in groups of 5 and distributed over the map so that meteors can kill em all in one hit.
Its all obsolete when u get the artificial sun...
It's valuable at the beginning but i rarely heat up all my concrete extractors away from my base. In that case you can't turn off the night shift.
Personally, I avoid solar & batteries like the plague and stick to turbines.
- transport enough polymer for a dome and 2 apartments, otherwise just import a lot of machine parts and a few electronics.
- second dome gets a machine parts factory.
- transport enough polymer for a dome and 2 apartments, otherwise just import a lot of machine parts and a few electronics.
- second dome gets a machine parts factory.
Try that with the paradox sponsor. The IMM is not the path to optimal build habits.